New Honors Society on Campus: Sigma Alpha Phi

Up to now, the chapter of National Society of Leadership and Success in Lawrence Technological University is almost founded. I have found several Executive Board members, Michael Dalessandro, who is the Vice President, Christina Minta, the Chair of Fundraising and Ireli Xhani.

To introduce our organization to the campus while checking the responds of potential members, we decided to hold our first informal introduction meeting on campus. This is our fist time to “sell” and test our organization to the market. After settling the time and location, another crucial tip is to make our product more attractive. During the discussion, Christina mentioned that it would be more attractive if we could offer some free food. Since everyone likes free food, it will be easier to introduce the organization to someone after he accepts the benefit we offer. It is always easier to sell a product when you have free gifts attached.

Then we decided to buy some pizza from Hungry Howie’s. As the Student Government does not operate in the summer, we can not apply any money to cover our costs. However, all the E-board members are generous so we decided to pay the pizza together. As the president, I feel so happy that all the members take responsibility, and it shows that their personality fits for Executive Board members.

We set a table in the atrium, putting some pizza on it to attract students to our group. At the beginning, we found that it was a tough task to invite strangers walking by to come. Some people just ignored us, which is rather embarrassing. Actually, the first stage of communication is relatively hard since people tend to be hesitating to talk to people who they don’t know. However, no one will reject a smiling face. If one is really enthusiastic and honest, the other one will be influenced. Then, the purpose of communication is achieved.

Then we changed our attitudes quickly to become more warm and talkative to students, inviting them to have free pizza first and making jokes to make them feel comfortable. While we talked to them, we tried to affect them how important leadership skills are and how our organization can help them to achieve their expectation. Also, we collected information about what aspect they are interested in our organization, and what potential problems they concern.

This two day introduction turned out to be rather successful. We asked students who are interested and might become a member to write down their contact information. The list finally contained about 50 students, which is impressive in the summer semester. The goal of this activity, which is finding out the number of potential members and what this organization should offer to students, was reached by our hard work.

I always believe that communication skill is the fundamental requirement for successful management. The activities and meetings of this internship make me confirm how important communication skill is. Since information is the primary element in today’s business world, how to transmit the information to make it clear and understandable for listeners, how to make sure the information is transmitted correctly and in time through different channels. All these tasks are related to communication, and they play important roles in management.