Spark Leadership Moments!

GSGA (Greenville Student Government Association) is a well known campus organization that creatively develops many activities and events at Greenville University. Many students enjoy these activities that are hosted by the GSGA members.

Student Anthony Zataray became a member of GSGA for his last year as a Panther. His insight has contributed to Greenville University in many ways. Spark Leadership was a well set event that had guest speakers talk to students and faculty members. It is not very easy getting speakers to join, but Zataray did it!

Zataray commented on this process, “The hardest part about getting speakers for the Spark Leadership Conference this year was getting speakers that fit into the theme I chose this year, which was ‘Leadership Through Social Influence.'”

He continued, “Originally, I wanted speakers that spoke about social media and gave students tools and tips about how to use social media to better someone’s personal brand in order to enable them to create social influence, but speakers for that particular topic were out of our budget.”

“So, for Sy Stokes it was pretty simple to get him here because he loves spreading his message. For Jered, again, fairly easy because he is an alumni of GU and was excited to come back and give back. For Neal Hobson from Boost 101.9, it was more about making sure I explained to him the theme properly so that he could feel confident giving a presentation about it.”

There were many enjoyable moments at the event, including Zataray’s favorite moment. “I think my favorite [moment] was when Sy Stokes spoke his first poem, ‘Dear White Counselor’ and looking around seeing everyone fully engaged with him and not on their phones. They were snapping their fingers and were just overall in awe of what they were seeing. It was awesome because it is a rare thing when you can take a look around a room and see not one person on their phone. The was my first time seeing poetry performed live and it really was a cool experience for me as well to be there with all my classmates.”

Many students that attended the Spark Leadership Conference enjoyed the event. Johari Dix, a senior, said, “The event was pretty cool. I really enjoyed that the speakers gave good information on how to be yourself, create new opportunities for your future and be good people to others. The first speaker was also funny and he generated a lot of other people’s attention to the advice that he gave us. I also liked how the event supplied Panda Express for us which was really good.”

The Spark Leadership conference created memorable moments for many students there. Swade Edwards, also a senior, had thoughts on how the event turned out. He said, “The Spark Leadership team created a conference that a lot of people could take important information from. The guest speakers brought advice and wisdom from there own personal experiences. It’s always helpful to hear personal experience because you can learn a lot from it. I also like how the speakers created a good vibe with the crowd and encouraged them to interact. There should be more events like this at Greenville University!”  

GSGA supplies many great events for Greenville University students.

There will be many more to come!

Media by Ashley Chaney.