Amy Howard is looking forward to being part of the upcoming delegation to the Great Lakes Affiliate College University Residence Halls (GLACURH) conference in early November.

“I want to help with my leadership skills and to come back with program ideas for my hall,” she said.

Howard, a junior psychology and occupational therapy major, is one of the 12-student GLACURH delegation which will represent Eastern at the conference Nov. 9 to 11 at Saginaw Valley State University.

This will not be the first leadership conference Howard will attend.

Last year, Howard took part in the Illinois Residence Hall Association winter conference at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and said she brought back several positive skills from it.

She said she hopes the GLACURH conference will offer a similar but better variety of leadership training because it’s a national conference.

“There’s a larger area covered with more and different ideas,” Howard said.

The delegation will be led by Brittany Kraft, who is the National Communication Coordinator / Illinois Communication Coordinator.

Kraft, a sophomore mathematics and secondary education major, said GLACURH is a leadership conference with representatives from various colleges from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ontario.

Kraft discussed the conference with residents during the Residence Hall Association meeting Thursday night in Ford Hall.

Kraft attended the conference last year and said she became a better leader as a result of it.

“It’s a great way for people to meet with other leaders and develop as leaders themselves,” she said.

Senior English major Carrie Mueller has been part of two IRHAs and GLACURH delegations for RHA and said they have helped her immensely in being a better leader.

“It really helps you become more comfortable with yourself and others,” she said. “It really helps you come out of your shell.”

Some of the activities Mueller said she took part in included teambuilding exercises that were focused on helping students work with different types of people and leaders, as well as personality tests to determine what kinds of leaders the students will be.

Mueller will not be part of this year’s delegation but still appreciates her experiences with GLACURH and hopes this year’s delegates enjoy the conference.

Kraft said delegates for the conference will be responsible for the creation of several objects and skits aimed at representing Eastern at the conference.

The delegation will make a banner, display and small Eastern tokens to be passed along to other schools at the conference. They will also perform a small skit or dance to be used as a way of introducing themselves to the other GLACURH delegations.

All of these will be related to the delegation’s theme “EIU’s Next Top Role Model.”

Kraft said the delegation has yet to begin construction on any of its items, but has decided on ideas for each of the projects it will make.

The delegation’s operating budget is $1,750 for construction materials and student expenses.

Kraft said a large part of the budget goes towards paying for a third of each delegates expenses for the trip.