By Lauren Lisitano | Public Relations Coordinator
L.E.A.D. is a community service club that creates student leaders to help the community. Founded in Fall 2012 by Anamaria Arteaga ’16, Sarah Lavallee, Alex DiMauro ‘16, and Celina Rodriguez ’16, L.E.A.D strives to follow Salve’s mission.
Arteaga shared some details on L.E.A.D.-
What does L.E.A.D. stand for?
L.E.A.D stands for Leading, Enriching, Advocating, and Developing. We Lead service projects, Enrich the community around us, Advocate upon global issues, and Develop as leaders.
What is L.E.A.D.’s mission and overall goal?
L.E.A.D is an organization that leads service projects, enriches the community, advocates on global issues, and develops the group members as leaders. It promotes leadership development with service work and teambuilding. This group incorporates the Mercy Mission of Salve Regina University to create a harmonious, just and merciful world. We accomplish this by fostering unity among students in the group and the school community. We also develop leaders through direct service by offering opportunities to lead or participate in service projects and community enrichment. Overall, we intend to educate group members on advocating for global awareness and issues while also teaching leadership skills.
What inspired you to start L.E.A.D.?
In completing my first year of Americorps Scholarships for Service my freshmen year, I realized that we needed more people in the community service office to lead service projects since there was a lot of need in the community and the same students were being asked to lead projects when we already had a commitment of 300 hours already to complete. We needed a bigger pool of students to ask and I gathered my co-L.E.A.D.ers and asked them if they wanted to join me in creating a club where we would focus on community service and the leadership skills in order to carry out community service projects and create new ones in which to address a need in the community. Now we have a core group of about 20 members who come currently to the meetings and we are learning leadership techniques in order to carry them out.
How are you planning to help the community?
We are developing our leaders in order to go out into the community. By doing this, we will have a ripple effect of more students doing service than just the same few. We are planning a sleep out to raise homelessness awareness and we are helping out with PEACE week in April.
How would students go about getting involved with LEAD?
Our next meeting times are Feb. 25, March 18, April 1, April 15, and April 29 from 6:30-7:30 in Miley 012.
Where could students go for more information?
Check out Salve L.E.A.D on Facebook! The Office of Community Service in McAuley also has more information.
