At the end of the Fall 2025 semester, a group of Pavlis Honors College students was selected to attend Michigan Tech’s LeaderShape® Institute, hosted at the Ford Center in Alberta, MI. This institute is a 4-day-long retreat to help grow their leadership skills.
History of the Institute:
The LeaderShape® Institute was founded in 1986 to engage participants in a transformative experience that will inspire them to create a more just, caring, and thriving world. The Institute allows participants to have time and space to have discussions with deeper meaning. These conversations, paired with guided instruction and challenges, allow participants to showcase their personal values in a community context.
The Institute is a 4-day experience that allows participants and facilitators to expand their leadership abilities using community examples. Students who attend the program expand their sense of community, learn their key values and connect their actions to their values, identify their leadership style, and learn how to properly work with the other leadership styles. What makes the retreat unique is the self-assessment, intense small group discussions, and team-building activities that curate an experience for participants to highlight their values in community-based topics.
“By leading with passion, integrity, and a healthy disregard for the impossible, participants explore who they are and the impact that they want to have on communities working towards a more caring, just, and equitable society”
The LeaderShape® Institute has continued to evolve and has been training leaders from our campus since 1996. To date, over 1,300 Huskies have participated in the program. The Institute takes place between the fall and spring semesters at the Ford Center in Alberta, MI.
Daily Activities & Staff:
Every day at the Institute, a new theme is chosen to build on the previous day and reflect the key leadership elements of vision, partnerships, integrity, and results. The days’ themes are:
- Day One: Living and Leading with Integrity
- Day Two: Challenging What Is, Looking to What Could Be
- Day Three: The Value of One, The Power of All
- Day Four: Living in Possibility
The Institute utilizes highly interactive program methods rather than classroom lectures. In this environment, everyone is a teacher, and everyone is a learner. Many of the activities engage the large group known as the Learning Community. Smaller groups, called Family Clusters, are also formed as a supportive, safe environment for personal reflection and the development of new skills, attitudes, and abilities.
“Everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner.”
Meet the staff for the event in Fall 2025 and what they had to say about the event!
Program Coordinator
Cole Pierucki, Senior Coordinator for Student Leadership & Involvement
“In my role as LeaderShape® Program Coordinator at Michigan Tech, I had the honor of coordinating the 30th session of the Institute on our campus. When I stepped into my full-time position in June, I wasn’t deeply familiar with LeaderShape® beyond knowing that it had a long history at our institution, with over 1,300 Huskies graduating from the program across the previous 29 sessions. Once I experienced the program firsthand, it became immediately clear why it has endured for three decades and why 11 different campus departments and student organizations chose to sponsor a student’s participation fee. By observing the participant activities and building connections with those involved, I learned a great deal about myself and met some truly amazing people. I am incredibly grateful to the 37 wonderful students who participated, to LeaderShape® for partnering with us for 30 amazing years, to the dedicated Faculty Team who volunteered their time, and to the incredible Ford Center staff whose support made this experience possible.”
On-site Coordinators
Josie Towery, MTU Student, Psychology Major and Mathematical Sciences Minor
Matthew Echols, MTU Student, Psychology Major and Computer Science Minor
Cluster Facilitators
Destaney Sauls, Assistant Teaching Professor –
“LeaderShape® was a reminder that leadership isn’t about holding a title – it’s about acting with intention, values, and courage. Through the experience, I realized that the most meaningful way I lead is by connecting with people and building relationships.”
Jennifer Nish, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition, Academy of Teaching Excellence –
“I had a great experience at LeaderShape®. It was wonderful to connect with the student and faculty participants outside of our usual settings on campus. The program is very well designed and an excellent opportunity for students to reflect on their values and cultivate leadership skills that will help them in many aspects of life.”
Micah Vacco, Senior Coordinator for Student Leadership & Involvement –
“LeaderShape® is an incredible opportunity for any student. As a staff member, I went in incredibly excited to see how the experience would shape my students. What I didn’t expect was to learn just as much—if not more—about myself. The program pushed me out of my comfort zone, allowed me to build meaningful relationships with students and peers I wouldn’t normally interact with, and created space for my own personal growth.”
Robert Handler, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering; Affiliated Assistant Professor, CEGE and Social Sciences; and Faculty Advisor, Green Campus Enterprise –
“Attending the LeaderShape® Institute was a great opportunity to step back from the busyness of everyday life and take some time to focus on the what, why, and how of your life and work.”
Pavlis Student Reflections on LeaderShape®
From building new friendships to gaining clarity around values and goals, Pavlis Honors students consistently point to LeaderShape® as a formative experience. The testimonials below reflect how the institute creates space for self-reflection, collaboration, and leadership development that extends well beyond the program itself. In their own words:
“LeaderShape® was an experience. Going into it, I was expecting it to be yet another boring leadership retreat. But it wasn’t. It was a fun experience. I got to meet a lot of awesome new people; everyone who attended the event was actually trying to be a part of the program and learn from the program. I am glad I did it, and would always recommend it to others to do it too. #BOLDWORLD”
“The LeaderShape® Institute provided a wonderful opportunity to develop my understanding of my motivations and career goals. The LeaderShape® programming provided guidance and a space supporting my development of essential skills for leadership and teamwork. I was also able to meet or strengthen relationships with a variety of great people, including the Facilitators and fellow participants. These interactions left me inspired and looking forward to the future.”
“LeaderShape® is like summer camp but in the winter with an incredible group of like-minded students! These four days were packed with engaging ice-breaker activities, team building, introspection and personality assessments, and so much more! My time at the LeaderShape® institute was invaluable and I would seriously recommend it to anyone who even remotely considers (or aspires to be) themselves a leader. My hope going into this institute was that I would leave with new connections – a network to work with so to say – to support me in all my future endeavors. And sure enough, one email later, I have a new undergraduate research position in a professor’s lab due to a connection made with a faculty member at LeaderShape®! I also walked away with many new friendships and leadership training that has already proven to be helpful in navigating conversations with my family, being a more effective leader in the clubs/orgs I lead, and overall just being a more confident and humble person simultaneously!”
“LeaderShape® was an experience where the people got to bond incredibly well, along with learning different opinions, helping us be leaders. I can tell it exposes people to multiple ways of thinking and approaches to solutions for problems. The way you go about things is as important as the end result. It is important to always keep your team in mind. This was one of the few things we learned, along with enjoying the food there.”
“LeaderShape® was a super cool retreat. Not only did I learn a lot about myself and how that translates into leadership, but I was able to make some new friends. The activities that they had us do were very enlightening to how people operate in groups, who takes charge, and how to channel that energy into accomplishing something productive. Overall, the event was worth my time, and I would recommend attending to anyone who wants to learn how to lead in an ever-changing world.”
