The 2026 Leadership Summit at Madison College brought students together from all corners of campus to look at leadership in a new way. The event, held in March at the Truax Campus, mixed workshops, connections and real conversations about purpose, identity and how leadership shows up in our everyday lives.
The summit opened with keynote speaker Jesús Gregorio Smith, whose work focuses on identity, belonging and turning lived experiences into sources of strength. Smith spoke honestly about community, courage and how people can transform difficult chapters of their lives into something that guides others. His message encouraged students to see leadership not as a title, but as a practice rooted in empathy and curiosity.
After the keynote, students split into breakout sessions. I attended Foundations of Leadership with Megan Watt, a learning and development specialist at Madison College. Watt led us through an interactive workshop that broke leadership down into clear dimensions. We explored leadership as a trait, ability, skill, behavior, relationship and process. Through a worksheet and a group activity where we had to decide what counted as leadership, she pushed us to challenge our assumptions. I found myself reflecting on how leadership shows up quietly sometimes, not just in big, visible moments.
My second session, Career Exploration with Wingspan, O*NET, and Virtual Reality, shifted us toward the future. We learned how to use Wingspan to identify interests, passions and our Holland Codes. O*NET helped us explore real labor market data, including job outlooks and the skills needed for different paths. The VR component was the most surprising — trying on a headset and stepping into simulated careers made everything feel more real and possible. It reminded me that exploring your future doesn’t have to be intimidating. Sometimes it can even be fun.
The summit ended with a networking dinner with Madison College alumni. Over pasta, I sat with a few former students, including a youth counselor, a psychologist, a marketing graduate and another student attendee, who is studying engineering. We traded stories about goals, classes and the twists life take. Their honesty about the ups and downs after graduation made the idea of entering the professional world feel a little less scary.
Walking out of the summit, I felt grounded and energized. Events like this matter because they give students space to think about who they are, what they’ve lived through and how those experiences can shape the way they lead. Leadership isn’t just for people with perfect resumes or loud voices. It’s for anyone who’s willing to grow, to reflect and to keep showing up.
As I move forward in my work as a peer support specialist and as a student preparing to earn a degree in journalism, this summit didn’t just give me tools. It reminded me that leadership can come from struggle, from resilience and from choosing to turn your story into something useful for others. That is leadership, too.
If this summit is a sign of what’s ahead for Madison College, then our campus is growing not just for upcoming workers, but also for future leaders who understand themselves, and each other, in deeper and more meaningful ways.
