Attendees enjoyed dinner overlooking the football stadium, lip sync battles, more Posted Wednesday, September 1, 2021 @ 9:34 AM The Housing Leadership Institute is a five-day, national award-winning program organized by the UCF Residence Hall Association Executive Board. This conference is an immersive leadership experience for incoming residents and takes place the week before each Fall semester. HLI serves as a crash course on leadership and how to get involved on campus, with educational and interactive programming sessions, guest speakers, nightly entertainment, and meals for all participants. This year, HLI had around 42 participants. Students were able to choose from a wide array of entertainment, leadership, social justice, self-care, and college readiness programming sessions that lasted throughout the day. Some of this year’s featured events included an evening banquet in the Roth Tower which overlooks the Spectrum football stadium. Participants got to meet UCF Housing Executive Director Dr. April Konvalinka and special guest Gordon Adams, who gave a few welcoming words for attendees. The conference also featured a program on community involvement and global citizenship hosted by Representative Anna Eskamani. Her engaging presentation allowed students to learn more about how UCF helped guide her in her path as a Florida Representative, and as a leader in general. One popular HLI tradition is an annual lip sync battle during one of the evening socials. The battle was a big hit this year as attendees really got into it and were able to break out of their shell. While HLI events introduce students to the UCF campus, ways to get involved, how to get around campus, welcome week events, leadership opportunities, and much more, it more importantly helped students connect with fellow peers and begin building friendships before the official start of the semester. RHA board member Keri Nguyen stated, “As someone who started my RHA and UCF Housing journey through HLI, it has truly come full circle. I attended HLI 2019, and it was such a great experience for me that I joined RHA and become a part of the Nike Area Council. From there I got the opportunity to apply to the executive board the following year. This past year I was able to serve as the Campus Communications Coordinator for RHA and run all the marketing efforts. Being a part of the executive board allows me to gain this experience of conference planning. It has been a long and stressful couple of months trying to pull everything together, but I think it was well worth all the stress and hard work we put into it. Overall, the conference went perfectly, and all the participants enjoyed their time with us. From the moment I stepped into the Neptune MPR for HLI 2019, I knew I would help make a difference in other residents’ lives. At the time, I did not know how I would do that but looking back I now know it would be through being on the RHA executive board and hosting HLI 2021.” To learn more about RHA and ways to get involved, be sure to follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Back