The students attending the Washington Leadership Training Institute wrote comments such as: “WLTI is one of the best things that has happened in my life” and “The experience was life changing and amazing.” I guess that’s why students ranked their conference satisfaction surveys at 4.55 on a scale of one to five with five being the highest. In the 23 areas receiving a ranking, none received a score below a four. Advisors had similar reactions. Their overall ranking was 4.53, and they wrote comments such as “I felt this was worth the work I put in” and “Transportation, sessions, outings – all were outstanding for me and my students.”
Deb Tripp ran our WLTI conference debriefing session with staff recently. She said one of the secrets to the ratings was that there was something new or different in each day’s schedule to keep the program fresh and relevant. She also reported that the community service activity during WLTI produced 406 letters to service personnel and were sent to Military Mission for delivery.
The week following WLTI, students at one school in South Carolina sent an additional 100 letters to Military Mission. We certainly struck a chord there. Two more comments from students: “Arlington and the Pentagon were WOW beyond explaining” and “I believe SkillsUSA should look into donating a tree to Arlington Cemetery. It’s something we can do that will be there a very long time.”
