Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute

This year, I had the chance to attend the Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute thanks to my fraternity. Kleberg is a leadership conference hosted at Miami university in Oxford Ohio (birthplace of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity), where members of the fraternity like me can go spend a few days to learn about leadership, risk management, problem resolution all the while meeting people from all around North America. The Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute was an amazing experience. It was my first time traveling out of the country by myself and my first time in most of the cities and states we traveled to to get there. The 3 days conference gavemy friend and I a chance to discover the beautiful small city of Oxford Ohio, which looks just like those small American university towns you see on television.

The conference is named after Tio Kleberg, an alumn from the fraternity who donates each year to our foundation in order to help pay for scholarships and big conferences like this one. I had the chance to meet him and his wife while at the conference, and it’s an opportunity I will always cherish. Kleberg is so kind and so happy to give us these opportunities which did not exist when he was our age. He is the example of what the fraternity aims at doing with our members: helping them become the best version of themselves. Tio and Janell Kleberg are two very inspiring people, and I hope I get to meet them again.

The conference

Like mentioned above, the conference took place over three days, although there was an extra day we could attend as a Canadian chapter, but we missed it when our flights were canceled and rebooked for the next day. The conference put us in small groups that would meet 8 times throughout the weekend to discuss about topics or issues related to leadership, risk management, mental health, hazing, self-awareness, recruitment, and much more. We also had 4 general sessions where all 1000+ members would meet in an auditorium to listen to speakers invited for the occasions, those speakers mostly talked about leadership, taking risks, comfort zones and what it means to be brave. I found this conference to be very educative and very fun, especially the smaller groups where we got to discuss our realities with people from different realities. Being so far from any other chapter here in Nova Scotia, it felt great to talk to others who shared our same issues. I also think that this type of learning where people share more than they listen works a lot better than the classic style of teaching we are used to.

During the conference, we also would be given ribbons for our chapter or personal achievements, my chapter ribbons were: Gold Star, Excellence in scholarships, and Excellence in risk management. My personal ribbons were Knight of Pallas and Foundation donor.

The Socials

Kleberg was not only about classrooms and speakers. We also had a lot of time and activities to socialize with brothers from around the continent. During the conference, I was roommates with a member from Texas A&M who studied agriculture, which created a clash of worlds with an agriculture student and CS student. We also spent a lot of times with some members from Georgia, with whom we visited the room where our fraternity was founded. We also got a chance to do a tour of the general headquarters of the fraternity which are just outside the university campus.

The first and last night, they also hosted Tio’s Roadhouse, where they had foodtrucks parked in the quad and we could get free food and talk with all the members present. I got the chance to try some nice fried chicken and a pickle grilled cheese. On the second night, they had instead opened the gym and we could go rock climb, go for a run, play soccer and basket ball, or work out in the gym. They also had pizza and sports drink if we prefered to go and chat with people. We also had the chance to sign our names on the flag that was there.

Everyday, we also had lunch vouchers so go and get lunch uptown, where I tried Skyline Chili and a tavern. The chili did not live up to the hype around it and everything we had been told, but it was still very good non the less. While uptown, we also got a chance to taste one of the best ice cream in the world.

Overall

Overall, I had a blast going on that trip, from seeing fossils at the airport to meeting the Klebergs and everything in between, it’s hard to find one specific highlight that was better than the rest. I am so glad I took the opportunity to go and stuck through with it, I met amazing people, learned so much and saw places I would never have otherwise. I recommend to any Phi to go if they have the opportunity, as I think this is one of the best trip I will ever have been on in my life.