The Donald V. Adams Leadership Institute — a leadership training program at Drake University — earned the top award tiers in two categories of NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education’s annual Excellence Awards.
NASPA is a student affairs professional organization that organizes professional development, research, advocacy and more for student life. NASPA previously stood for National Association of Student Personnel Administrators but is no longer an acronym.
Kristin Economos, senior director of the Adams Institute, attended the conference to receive the award. During the conference, she attended breakout sessions to learn about other collegiate programs and presented to a group about the Adams Institute.
“At this conference I told people, we have students on our campus who are committed to leadership in that way. A lot of college students want to talk about leadership when it’s public, when they’re getting applause for it or when it’s immediately listed on their resume, but students in the Adams Institute are saying, ‘Hey I’m going to show up on a Tuesday afternoon for no credit and no cash to give myself some time to practice these skills in a low-stakes environment before it really counts,’” Economos said.
The Adams Institute earned the Gold Award Winner in the fraternity and sorority life, leadership, student activities, student union, and related category and the Silver Award in the Grand category — the overall conference award category.
“I remember when I submitted the final contents for [the nomination] I thought ‘Oh my gosh, there are going to be hundreds of submissions there’s probably no way we’ll get this,’ but I feel a responsibility as the director to be sure that people know about the good work our students are doing in this program,” Economos said.
Economos said that the repetitive nature of the skills training in the Adams Institute sets it apart and earned it the award. Students practice skills that they learn about in theory.
Economos said she is also proud of the adjustable nature of the courses. After students graduate, she sends out surveys to them to gauge which skills they utilized the most in their lives and which they didn’t, and she adjusts coursework based on that feedback.
Gunner Onkst, a junior studying magazine and brand media, has worked as an intern with the Adams Institute. In the program, they teach incoming first-years about leadership.
“Seeing my students at the start of the semester not really knowing how to describe their leadership skills and being able to offer them practices in order to become happier individuals, and like, as our motto says, ‘Lead a life worth following,’ it’s really great to see their progress towards the end of the semester and how much they’ve improved since then,” Onkst said.
Onkst thinks that it’s great that the institute won the award given how much it differs from leadership programs at other universities. Onkst toured universities where the leadership training was credits-based like a major or minor. Unlike other universities, The Adams Institute has three modules where students learn and practice different aspects of leadership such as self-awareness and communication. The three modules are scaffolded, meaning that students need to learn one skill to move on to the next.
Looking ahead to their final year at Drake, Onkst is excited for the third module, called The Leadership Launch.
“It’s supposed to give me a lot of skills and what to consider for what to do postgrad,” Onkst said. “And so obviously as someone who is going to be looking for jobs soon and not really knowing what to do, I think any advice that anyone is willing to give, I’m willing to take.”
Economos said that she has become a better person both professionally and personally because of the students that she works with. Ecnomos enjoys interacting with students outside of the classroom and celebrating “what’s right with them in a world that always wants to tell them how they’re wrong or how they need to improve.”
“Whenever you get the gift of being in close proximity with people whose experience and perspective is different than yours, you grow as long as you’re open to it,” Economos said.
