UALR’s Chancellor’s Leadership Corps turns 40
September 14-20, 2015
By Becca Bona
UALR’s Chancellor’s Leadership Corps (CLC) will turn 40 this year. The tradition-rich program encourages student success and guidance through campus and community involvement. The students who participate develop a strong support system through each other – much like a family.
The scholarship program was designed to help develop and hone skills necessary to shape students into leadership positions on campus and beyond.
Nick Steele, the CLC Coordinator, was once a CLC scholar himself. He remembers being notified as a senior at Sheridan High School of his acceptance to the CLC, and was excited but unsure of what was to come.
He says, “Once my freshmen year came around at UALR, I immediately got involved and served as a UALR Ambassador my sophomore year, as well as worked in the office of admissions giving campus tours.” Even after graduating, Steele couldn’t get the experience of the CLC way out of his shoes.
He continues, “When I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Radio, TV, and Film from UALR, I decided to work in college student affairs and enrollment management.” After spending a year at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts as a recruiter, he was hired at UALR as the assistant director of admissions. That next step with the unversity would lead him back to the CLC.
He says, “I spent four wonderful years as the assistant director of admissions and luckily had an opportunity to network with Dr. Logan Hampton, formerly the dean of students and director of the Donaghey Student Center, as we began laying the new foundation for CLC prior to the start of the fall 2010 semester. I was offered to be CLC’s first ever full-time coordinator on July 1, 2011. It is by far the best job on this campus, getting to work with so many outstanding student leaders in this program that has grown to a total of 550 scholars this year.”
Steele lays out the motto for CLC students which is to “learn, lead, and serve.” Through the course of their freshman year, CLC scholars commit to learning both inside and outside of the classroom, serving UALR and the surrounding community. Steele details the numerous activities included in the lineup: “We serve many programs across Little Rock. We have assisted with the City of Little Rock and the Little Rock School District with many initiatives. We continue to be actively involved with Boo at the Zoo, Miracle League, Special Olympics, Best Buddies, along with many other great programs across the state. We also have our own initiative on campus – the Reach 13,000 Food Drive, where we try to bring 13,000 canned food items to donate to those in need. We put on several events including the Kickball Tournament, Battle of the Talents, and the Corpse Ball to collect these items. We also have a campus wide departmental competition as well to help with the donations. Last year alone, we collected over 15,000 items.”
The immense amount of activity may sound like a heavy load for a student, but as seen in Steele’s case, CLC involvement can produce a true leader.
Currently, Steele is in the process of planning a reunion event for alumni members who were a part of the CLC to celebrate the program’s 40th anniversary. “This will be a wonderful opportunity to welcome those alumni members back who had such an impact on the program, history, and culture of the CLC way. I look forward to meeting many of our alumni members for the very first time. It will be a great time to network with current scholars to see what is new … and for them to come back and look at all the positive changes on UALR’s campus.”
For more information on the CLC, visit: http://ualr.edu/clc/.
