As a way to make leadership less intimidating and show that it can come in all shapes and sizes, the Department of Student Involvement has created the Reel Leadership series, said Sadie Hanigan, a student coordinator for the Department of Student Involvement. Hanigan said they try to choose a movie about leadership each month.
It is a fun way to get people thinking about leadership in a low-key, casual way, she said.
As a way to have people think about the leadership aspects of the movies in ways that are not intimidating, they create open-ended leadership questions that go along with each movie and staple them to the popcorn bag.
“As they are watching the movie, maybe they think about those questions,” Student Coordinator Laura Exley said.
Exley said so far the series has been increasingly successful. She said 20 people showed up to “Mona Lisa Smile” on Oct. 29.
They have also seen people from the community come to the movies, not just students, which they are happy about, Hanigan said.
Both Hanigan and Exley said Vandal Entertainment has been great in working with them to make the series successful.
Exley said they want to do three movies a semester, preferably once a month, but scheduling makes that difficult.
This semester they played both “Remember the Titans” and “Mona Lisa Smile” in October, and will show “Dead Poets Society” Dec. 5.
Since this is the first year this series has been done, they hope that it will continue onto the next school year, but right now they are focusing on the spring semester.
Exley said they will show movies in February, March and April, and they were going through lists of movies to decide what to show.
Right now, in the running for next semester are Chocolate, Crash and October Sky.
When asked how the first two were leadership related, Hanigan and Exley said that was the reaction they wanted from people.
“We want people to think ‘how the heck is that a leadership movie?'” Hanigan said. “And then be like ‘bam!’ you understand.”
With the discussion questions leading people, Exley said she hopes people realize how different movies that do not seem like they have a strong leadership aspect in fact do.
Hanigan said that right now they have a poll which allows people to choose the movies they would most like to see, and also an area to suggest movies.
“Everyone should go vote,” Hanigan said “Go to the Department of Student Involvement Leadership page on Facebook, we have a poll on there that everyone should go vote on that so we know what the people want.”
She also said that if people showed interest in having a discussion after the movies they would start doing it, as it would be a fun and beneficial way to discuss leadership.
The Department of Student Involvement has been working with multiple leadership programs this year, and Exley said their goal is to have people not be afraid of leadership.
“Everyone can do it (be a leader),” she said. “So we offer little programs throughout the semester to give every student an opportunity to participate.”
The Reel Leadership Series helps with that goal, Exley said.
“And we always have free popcorn,” Hanigan said.
Allison Griffith can be reached at [email protected]