Video by Marissa Roberto and Allie Stein
“We need leaders more than ever before,” Maria Vizcarrondo, the executive director of the Nerney Leadership Institute, said.
“The Institute was created three years ago with the purpose of addressing one of the pillars of Cabrini University,” Vizcarrondo said. “We have academic excellence, social justice and the third pillar is leadership development.”
Vizcarrondo spoke highly of the Institute and its mission. The mission goes far beyond simply wanting to be a leader.
Sophomore Matt Keelan has had firsthand experience in taking on a leadership role at Cabrini University.
After talking with Vizcarrondo, it seems quite obvious that there is a call for leadership when it comes to Cabrini University. The Nerney Leadership Institute specializes in helping those students who would like to step up and take command.
“To me, being a leader is all about bringing people together to achieve a certain goal, as well as feeding off of each other’s qualities and skills in order to work together in our community,” Keelan said. Keelan was a part of the leadership LLC (Living & Learning Community) and believes that it greatly benefited his personal development as well as his skills in being a leader.
“The leadership LLC is one of my favorite parts of Cabrini,” Keelan said. “Myself and the other members of the LLC have spent a lot of time together taking leadership classes, going on trips, living on the same floor together and really becoming a family.”
Keelan chose to be a part of the leadership LLC because he wanted to get involved, and seeing how the LLC is spoken so highly of, he thought he would give it a try.
There are various ways on campus to become a leader besides being a part of the leadership LLC. The Nerney Leadership Institute has many ways for students to get involved in various activities and events that develop leadership skills.
“Students should get involved in the leadership opportunities the University has to offer,” Vizcarrondo said. “Either through taking workshops with LEADStrong, our new leadership studies program and other opportunities we create.”
Vizcarrondo urged that every student should take some kind of course or workshop on leadership, as it is a trait that makes students very marketable in the workplace.
“A leader the way we describe it at the Institute, is that every individual is accountable, responsible and willing to make a contribution,” Vizcarrondo said. “We believe that every student at Cabrini should be able to be accountable, care about what is happening in their environment and to get engaged in some way to make a difference in their environment, that’s what makes you a leader.”
The Nerney Leadership Institute invites an Executive in Residence once a semester to the Cabrini campus to inspire students and faculty to take on a leadership role. Pedro A. Rivera, the current Pennsylvania secretary of education, came to campus this semester to speak about his journey to becoming a leader in the field of education.
“My visit was an opportunity to engage directly with all of the students of Cabrini,” Rivera said. “To me the word ‘leadership’ is act of making a declaration and getting others to follow it.”
Rivera also included the steps that it takes in order to become a true leader.
“First, leadership is about standing for something, so you have to make that declaration,” Rivera said. “Second, it’s being responsible for the people who choose to follow you, and sometimes being a leader means acknowledging that you aren’t always right.”
Rivera included that integrity is a large part of being a leader.
“There’s no worse thing you can do as a person or a leader than to compromise your integrity and what your beliefs are,” Rivera said. “So anyone who doesn’t think they are a leader, they are probably wrong.”
