Student leadership

Extracurricular activities help students develop leadership skills.

Transcript

Recently our unversity students held their annual festival. They organized events, sold food and other stuff, and had a good time for two days. The university staff and faculty helped, but the students themselves did most of the organizing. They put a lot of work into their festival.

Student clubs are great for leadership training. Students have to organize events, deal with money, and cooperate by taking responsibility for different jobs. Sometimes there are serious conflicts between club members, and occasionally members suddenly quit for various reasons. Club life can become pretty dramatic, and sometimes club leaders feel great pressure.

Each club has a faculty adviser. I've been the adviser to our English Speaking Society (E.S.S.) for well over two decades. Years ago there were E.S.S. clubs throughout Japan. Students held speech and debate contests, and in Kyoto they performed one or two large-scale musicals every year. Those days are long gone, and now the E.S.S. is a small group of students who want to practice using English in a variety of situations. For the past six or seven years the club has been so small that it's been very difficult to do large-scale activities.

Nowadays very few students show any interest in E.S.S., and even fewer are willing to take leadership roles. The current leader, a sophomore, has done a wonderful job, but she's been frustrated by a lack of commitment among younger students. She and her friend, another sophomore, are responsible and dedicated, but they've been unable to maintain club membership.

I don't know what the future holds for the E.S.S. club, but I think it's especially valulable for leadership training. Student leadership really builds character, especially when leaders begin with so many good qualities. The most mature and responsible members suffer when their fellow students desert them, but even that suffering can make a good person stronger. For her sake, and for the sake of future leaders, I hope we can find a way to keep the E.S.S. club alive.