A List
9/13/04

FIRST-YEAR COUNCIL AT SLU INCLUDED IN 'IDEAS FOR GOOD PRACTICE'

CANTON – The First-Year Council, a leadership and training program for first-year 
students at St. Lawrence University, has been recognized in a manual citing "ideas 
for good practice" published by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) 
Commission for Student Involvement.
	The program is coordinated by Peg K. Cornwell, project director of the 
St. Lawrence University Leadership Academy. 
      The ACPA annually offers a series of Ideas for Good Practice Manuals, described 
as guides "to new ideas in student activities, leadership programs, theme 
celebrations and community service. The goal of this program is to provide our 
members with new and innovative ideas." St. Lawrence's First-Year Council is included 
in the 2004 manual on leadership and training.
	The First-Year Council includes two representatives selected from each of 
the University's First-Year Colleges, residences where students live together and 
take one of four classes together. By both creating and providing programming for 
members of the first-year class, the council promotes class unity, as well as 
encouraging involvement in other leadership programs, during the first year and 
beyond. 
	Cornwell states, "First-year students are interested in networking with 
upper-class students and in finding ways to be involved with co-curricular activities. 
In addition, many students seek leadership positions, but they have limited 
training in how to be successful in a leadership role. While the council might appear 
to be an ordinary first-year governing body, in fact participants engage in strategic 
and intentional activities that help them to develop leadership skills of shared 
decision-making, collaborative work and communication with peers.
      "Since we started this program three years ago," Cornwell notes, "we have been 
able to involve more students in structured programs that develop their leadership 
skills, consequently enabling students to make greater contributions to the programs 
in which they are involved."

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