The mission of the Florida International Leadership Conference (FILC) is to promote international understanding with the goal of enhancing leadership skills. International students and Study Abroad students are invited yearly to participate. Attending FILC is the pure example of a GLOCAL activity; attending this multicultural conference is like traveling all around the world without ever getting on a plane! This year I had the privilege of taking eight St. Petersburg College students to participate in this life changing, weekend-long journey, with co-advisor Angela Cole.

One of my favorite things about this conference is the great amount of positive energy each student presents within each activity and session. It’s clear to see that everyone here already has the leadership skills within them – some already know it, while others are just discovering it for the first time. Everyone here has some sort of international experience to share with the group, whether they are US Study Abroad students or International students studying in the US. They all attend FILC ready to learn from each other.

During one of the sessions students had the opportunity to go up and express their opinions on the topic of success. An international student said that to her success meant recognizing the fact that no matter where we are from we all have something in common: we all are global citizens from the same planet, Earth. A US student went up and described that during his experience abroad he noticed that the international community is a welcoming community. He said that in order to understand success one should learn from the international community and take that welcoming attitude with them everywhere. Treating everyone equally, with kindness and with a sense of brotherhood.

In the end, the recurring theme I saw within FILC boils down to two topics: personal relationships and respect.

Please take a minute to hear directly from the SPC students themselves in this short FILC 2014 video I put together: