Pandemic Presidency: Infectious Leadership Challenges

From December 2019 to December 2020, I served as the chapter president of the Chi Omega Psi Epsilon Chapter at Arizona State University. Although my experiences as president sharpened my leadership abilities and provided me with skills I will take into my future career, the emotional baggage caused by the experience was scarring. I found myself carrying it with me after my term ended, allowing my negative emotions to highly affect my post-leadership experience. In conducting this project, it was my goal to determine if other student leaders had similar experiences to mine, and if so, come up with recommendations on how to improve support processes to ensure that student leaders are able to enjoy their terms as much as possible. From my research, it is evident that expectations and responsibilities put on student leaders are taking away from the positives that spring from leadership experiences. In interviewing 18 student leaders from multiple organizations across six universities around the country, it became evident that students’ positions were highly affecting their mental health and feelings towards the organization and university while in the leadership role and after their terms. I created three recommendations with the hope that this project will start the conversation around the topic of student leadership support, eventually inspiring change that will allow future student leaders to have a better experience than both myself and my peers had. These recommendations include creating an outlet/platform where past and current student leaders can talk about their experiences, creating an avenue for organization advisors to connect with the majority of members rather than having them solely in contact with the leaders, and streamlining university communications to both students, leaders, and advisors. By doing these three things, student leaders will have a better support network, allowing them to fully experience, learn from, and enjoy their time as an executive board member of their organization.