Innovation in Leadership: Student Leadership Conference

One Young World 2010 by One Young World is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Trinity’s Student Leadership Conference was held last Saturday.  At 10 a.m. Trinity students of all ages gathered in the Fiesta Room. The two main components of the conference were the session workshops and the speakers.

The main speaker was Jin In, founder of 4GGL. 4GGL is a non-profit organization that helps raise neglected girls out of poverty and shows them how valuable they are. As quoted from the organization’s website, 4GGL’s mission is “to ignite, cultivate, and promote girls’ leadership development locally, and to advance gender equity globally.” In worked under the secretary of health under George Bush and was also involved with the UN. She was extremely inspirational to me personally because I am interested in working for a non-profit organization when I am older. Her motivational talk showed me that I have the power to make a difference, at Trinity and in the world.

We watched the video posted above, which shows the One Young World leadership conference in 2010. This showed us that young people are the future, and that everyone around the world is able to work together for peace and change. It was extremely inspirational and demonstrated the power of young people.

Then we attended different workshop sessions of our choice. First, I learned about effectively communicating my vision in a workshop with Dr. Moffett. Then I attended a session about Trinity’s Global Service Corps, a program with the goal to enrich study abroad programs by adding a volunteer project.  We had an alumni networking lunch which we met some of Trinity’s most successful alumni. Finally, I went to a session that motivated to create local and global social change. After the sessions we all met back in the Fiesta room again to hear In’s closing speech. Overall, the conference was a really positive experience and I walked away ready to take action to improve the lives around me in any way I can!

O-Rec Trip to Barton Springs

Photo taken by Jamie Banks
Barton Springs by Jamie Banks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

This past Sunday, I went on a trip to Barton Springs sponsored by Trinity’s Outdoor Recreation Club. Located on the grounds of Zilker Park in Austin, Barton Springs consists of four natural water springs that flow from the Edwards Aquifer. The area we visited was called the Main Barton’s Spring and has been turned into a swimming pool. It's the fourth largest spring in Texas!

I spent most of the day swimming in the water and tanning on the lawn. The floor of the pool was covered with algae making it very slippery and difficult to walk. We took turns racing each other and tried not to slip. There were many unique natural species throughout the area including fish, squirrels, and insects. The pool’s most famous critter is the endangered Barton Springs Salamander. This species only lives in Barton Springs and is famous for being a lungless salamander. Ten percent of the pool’s admissions fee goes to protecting this creature.

The pool has a very unique history. Hundreds of years ago the pool was a sacred site for the Tonkawa Native Americans who used it for purification rituals. When Spanish explorers discovered the area in the 1700s, they built temporary missions surrounding it until they later moved to San Antonio. In 1837, William “Uncle Billy” Barton settled the area. He named three of the springs after his daughters (Zenobia, Parthenia, and Eliza.) Barton realized it would make a great tourist attraction and his prediction came true!

On the way back we stopped at P. Terry’s Burger Stand and then Sno Beach for snow cones. Both were delicious! I had a great time and I can’t wait for the next O-Rec adventure!