The Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement at Georgia Southern University will bring six keynote speakers on Saturday for the eighth annual Southern Collegiate Leadership Conference.

The speakers will come from GSU and all over the state to speak. A few of them are: John Barrow, Georgia’s 12th Congressional District representative, Judge Faye Sanders Martin, first woman appointed to the Georgia Superior Court and Darron Burnette, president/CEO of Sea Island Bank.

“Part of what we did this year is to have a set of shorter keynotes who are leaders in the community and on campus, the community being Georgia because most of them are primarily local leaders,” John Banter, leadership coordinator of Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement, said.

The speakers will each bring their own leadership backgrounds and present the audience with speeches on various topics.

Last year, the conference hosted one keynote speaker, but this year there are six keynote speakers.

There are five educational workshop sessions to attend which include emerging leadership, leadership in service, leadership in teams, leadership in Greek organizations and taking leadership to the real world, according to the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement website.

“I’m excited to hear the messages the speakers have in store for us, especially on the Greek life track,” Colleen McNally, senior journalism major, said.

One exciting aspect of the conference is learning different ways to build leadership skills, Eudiah Ochieng, freshman biology major, said.

Students are encouraged to attend not only as freshmen, but every academic year to work on developing leadership skills no matter what experience level they may have, Banter said.

The Collegiate Leadership Conference was created for students to come together on a day to develop leadership skills that will be beneficial beyond the college level and in campus organizations, Deal said.

The Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement opened this conference up to more than GSU students because the office hopes to make this a premier leadership conference for the South, Deal said.

Students from Southern Polytechnic State University will also be attending the conference, Banter said.

McNally said, “I went two years ago and I left really inspired.  My advice to all is to bring paper and a pen – you will want to take notes.”