Photo by Michael Montalto
The Sophomores Advancing In Leadership group, also known as SAIL, hosted a conference showcasing the video presentations created by each member. These video presentations, which occurred this past Monday, are the last major step in attaining a SAIL certificate, which marks the completion of the program.
The Ramapo website describes SAIL as, “a leadership certificate program specifically designed to help sophomores realize their full leadership potential as they explore their second year at Ramapo. Sophomores will gain leadership experience by attending monthly SAIL seminars, participating in community events and giving back through community service.”
The SAIL program takes up to 30 sophomores annually, and upon completion of the program, participants receive a certificate and an honor cord, which can be worn at graduation.
Each video project focused on what leadership at Ramapo is, and each presenting member of SAIL took their own creative approach in producing their video. Environmental science major Sean Farrell focused on ethical leadership and diversity in leadership during his presentation.
“We learned that there’s a variety of problems on campus and there’s a variety of students on campus, so as a result, there’s a variety of leaders, which is what you need because with a variety of leaders there’s different walks of life; there’s different looks, so we’re going to get different solutions,” said Ferrell.
Gwendolyn Lee, a communication arts major, chose to animate her video in a simplistic manner, while still adding in humor. Her video showed how leadership can come out in small and simple actions. Psychology major Gianna DiPisa compared the different types of leadership roles one may step into by showing different types of shoes in her video.
“Sometimes a leader will need to wear a type of shoe he or she might not normally wear. Leaders need to go out of their comfort zone sometimes in order to complete a task,” said DiPisa. “A specific pair of shoes is needed for every situation. The best leaders know exactly which pair of shoes to choose in order to succeed.”
“We were encouraged to embrace this video in a creative light, and answer the question ‘What does leadership look like at Ramapo College?’ so I took a different approach, a more personal approach,” said Christine Darakjy, a mathematics major, before introducing her video.
With a parody of the famous lunchroom clique scene from the 2004 cult classic “Mean Girls,” Darakjy’s video focused on the different outlets of leadership on campus, such as leadership roles in fraternities, sororities and clubs, among others.
While the event was on the smaller side, the support for the presenters was strong, both from the SAIL members themselves and from outside supporters.
“The presentations were interesting. I didn’t really know what it was about beforehand,” said student Tiffany Rodriguez. “It’s nice to know that it’s going on on campus, that there’s leadership programs … I feel like our campus is really strong when it comes to leadership, with all of our programs going on.”
aleight@ramapo.edu
