for children at the D.C. Rape Crisis Center in Washington, D.C., through the Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
Launching Luther Leaders
Rewant Lokesh ’11, internship at Welspun India, Mumbai, India Rewant Lokesh ’11 spent January 2010 back home in India, where he had graduated from Mahindra United World College of India in 2007. The region’s mild temperatures provided a welcome respite from Decorah’s frigid winter weather, but Lokesh, a management major, had his mind on other things. As a supply chain intern at the corporate headquarters of Welspun India, he worked in inventory management for the company, manufacturer and exporter of towels, rugs, and bed sheets to some of the largest retailers in the United States.
Rewant Lokesh ’11 learned the nuts and bolts of computerized inventory management while interning at Welspun India in January 2010. Lokesh says, “Working with the supply chain management team at corporate headquarters helped me better understand basic international outbound and inbound logistics, inventory management, and PPC [pay per click] using SAP software.”
Online videos: More students tell what they did and learned during their internship experiences. Go to www.luther.edu/jterm/videogallery.
Alex Tomesch ’12, a biology major from Bettendorf, Iowa, has never shied away from being a leader. Captain of his high school football team, he earned his Eagle Scout wings— the highest Boy Scout rank attainable—as a teenager while helping lead the school’s chamber choir. At Luther, Tomesch continued to seek ways to expand and enhance his leadership skills. “Launching Luther Leaders,” also known as “L3”—a program offered through the college’s Student Life Office—intrigued him from the start. “The most beneficial thing that I’ve taken from L3 is the interaction I’ve had with the wide variety of leaders who are taking part in it,” says Tomesch, one of 12 Luther students who will earn leadership certificates (the program’s first) this spring. “Being able to sit down and talk about issues and share our different experiences has helped all of us become better, more effective leaders.” That assessment is music to the ears of Ann Highum, vice president and dean of student life, who teamed with Jon Lund, former associate dean for student life, to launch the program in Fall 2010. “We wanted to coordinate the many, many things we do in the area of leadership,” she says of developing the program. “We felt like we were going in the right direction in terms of offering opportunities, but there wasn’t any kind of cohesiveness to those efforts.” Now under the direction of Highum and Jane (Greene) Hildebrand ’74, assistant dean of student life, “L3” boasts three distinct components—the Leadership Skills Series (seminars and workshops on a wide range of topics, open to all Luther students), the Leadership Certificate Program (students must apply or be nominated), and the Student Leadership and Service Awards Program (the Black Student Union, i-ImpactNow, and the Alpha Beta Psi sorority received the inaugural awards last spring). Highum admits that she and Hildebrand, like the student participants, are learning as they go and as the program
L U T H E R
A L U M N I
grows. “We’re noting which workshops and seminars really attract student attention and which get a more ho-hum reaction,” she says. “Our goal is for all interested students to have the opportunity to learn about their own leadership abilities—how they can use those both while they’re here on campus and after they graduate, and how they can best articulate the leadership skills they possess to a future employer or graduate school admissions committee.” Tomesch, for one, believes the program got off to a solid start. He credits it with helping him reach his potential both in the football huddle—he was elected by his teammates to serve as co-captain of the Norse squad this past fall—and in the classroom in courses such as “Human Dissection and Anatomy,” which he took in January 2012. “That course was student-driven to the point that we even wrote our exams for each other,” he says. “Using the skills I developed through the L3 program, I was able to take the lead in several situations and help get things done in a much more effective and efficient manner.” Ashley Matthys ’12, a communication studies major from Red Wing, Minn., shares neither Tomesch’s academic nor his cocurricular interests—she’s a Chips editor and cross country runner—but has found participating in the “L3” program just as fruitful. “L3 has helped me assess and improve upon my strengths as a leader,” she says simply. With 22 students—all in the class of 2013—having begun the leadership certificate program last fall, a sophomore group of 24 emerging leaders, and a full slate of workshops being planned for the coming year, the future of L3 looks bright. “Students are seeing the events on campus and are associating them with the Launching Luther Leaders program,” says Highum, who will retire this May after 21 years of service to the college. “We are really proud of how this program is evolving—it will be even better in a few years—and of the 12 individuals who earned the first certificates, and who will represent the college so well.”
M A G A Z I N E
23 CAREERS.FINAL APRIL 9indd 23
4/17/12 3:02 PM