Brains for Change

This weekend, more than 140 students from all three campuses are coming together for the DSU’s Brains For Change conference.

Over two days, students will work together to craft a “Declaration on Student Engagement,” and initiating student-led task forces to begin turning their ideas into reality. There’s $5,000 available to support student-led initiatives emerging from this conference.

The event grew out of the DSU’s new leadership program, which aims to provide networking support, mentorship, and coaching to better support Dalhousie’s student community. Through Brains for Change, students will draft a path for the campus community, based around the idea of creating a “culture of leadership” at Dal.

The conference includes keynote addresses from George Roter, co-founder of Engineers Without Borders, and Danny Graham, chair of Envision Halifax, a group fostering leadership and civic engagement for HRM. In addition, there are three lively panel discussions, each focused on a key pillar of student life:

• Community engagement

• Billy Parish, founder, Energy Action Coalition
• Peggy Cunningham, acting dean, Faculty of Management
• Damian Daniels, Dalhousie Experiential Learning Participant
• Sarah McClaren, executive director, Leave Out ViolencE (LOVE)

• Career preparation

• Dan MacDonald, president and CEO, InNOVAcorp
• Dev Aujla, author, How to Make Money and Change the World
• Jim McNiven, executive director, Atlantic Provinces Economic Council
• Christine Moore, career counselor, Dalhousie
• Tracy Boyer, co-founder, The Hub Halifax

• Classroom learning

• Dr. Alan Shaver, VP (Academic and Provost), Dalhousie University
• Leah Skerry, ACE’s 2009 Atlantic Canada Student Entrepreneur of the Year
• Dr. Deborah Kiceniuk, associate director, Centre for Learning and Teaching (Dalhousie)
• Dr. Ron Stewart, Officer of the Order of Canada
• Marla Gaudet, Atlantic Region Rep, Canadian Alliance for Community Service Learning

Check out BrainsForChange.ca to learn more. Stay tuned to learn what comes from this landmark event.

Jamie Arron is the leadership director for the DSU.