Last Thursday, five hardworking students traveled to Washburn University for the Leadership Challenge Event. Amelia Bamgardner, senior, Tanner Myers, Matthew Parodi, Mason Wilde, and Michelle Henry, juniors, competed in the leadership event against twenty other schools, returning as LCE champions.
“[Winning] it was a surprise because there were twenty other schools there and you get to see how everyone works,” Henry, said.
The team was given the scenario of a flash flood in the fictional Central Kansas County. Using the knowledge given and their leadership skills, the team worked hard to find a solution. There were three rounds they had to complete the tasks given according to their roles. First was individual work, second was a third party meeting and finally was a leadership meeting where the team could get together and work on finalizing their solution.
“This is not an easy competition – it’s a real life simulation that can be fairly unnerving,” Kimberly Payton, LEOs club sponsor, said.
The team was divided up into five different roles; all roles were used to solve the scenario given. Myers embodied the position of Central Kansas County Sheriff in which he had to regulate the public’s hysteria. Parodi represented Director of Public Works in which he had to determine where sandbags and barricades need to be placed to prevent flooding. Wilde took on the role of Chief Operating Officer of Krypton’s Energy where he to make sure that all electricity was where it needed to be throughout the county. Bamgardner became the President of the Kansas Health Association and her job was to make sure disease did not spread throughout the flooded waters and to maintain the nursing and doctor staff. Henry was the Executive Director of Central Kansas community Foundation and her role was to organize volunteers for clean-up and raise funds for rebuilding.
“The Leadership Challenge Event is a unique experience because there’s really nothing else like it,” Parodi, said.
Even though they had a minor bomb threat set back in the middle of the event, after regrouping the team did very well against the other schools given that this was only Louisburg’s third year competing.
