A women’s leadership organization on campus strives to inform Aggie women about the important relationship between health and leadership.
Friday, MSC LEAF, Leadership and Empowerment of Aggie Females, will have the women’s leadership conference, and this year’s theme is wellness. Wellness is the process of informed choices that leads one to a healthy lifestyle; a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.
This year’s keynote speakers are Britny Fowler, personal trainer on the TV show Heavy, and Michelle Aguilar, a past winner of The Biggest Loser. These women have first-hand experience in balancing health within their daily lives.
“I’m very excited to see her come,” said director of development of MSCLEAF Lizzy Fischer, about Michelle Aguilar. “She is a great speaker who’ll be able to relate to the women. She has come so far in her personal issues; she confronted them and became a healthy happy person.”
Winner of NBC’s sixth season of The Biggest Loser, Aguilar had to cope with both the emotional stress of reconciling with her mother and her addiction to food. According to her website, she now takes part in tours, appears on talk shows and is involved in various charities.
This conference focuses on how the female students at A&M can learn how to juggle daily lives in a healthy and stress-free manner.
“Participants said, ‘Oh we’d really like to see something health-geared.’ I think there’s a strong emphasis on being healthy, and that’s not just physically, but emotional[ly], financially – if you’re graduating, you need to know that you have to budget,” said Bethany Barnes, chairwoman of MSC LEAF.
Besides the keynote speakers, there will be a panel of other professional women from around the Bryan-College Station area who will discuss different elements of their lives and careers; how they achieve financial, physical, mental and emotional well-being.
After the speakers, the delegates will break up into groups for sessions and activities. One includes a fitness portion headed by Fowler.
“It’s casual because people have one area where there’s a fitness break-out session where they can go and get their exercise on, so jeans are fine,” Barnes said.
Fowler, class of 2006, graduated with a degree in sports management and is a certified personal trainer, corrective exercise specialist and level III peak Pilates.
Registration is open until the day of the conference on Friday, as the executives would like to see more students participate.
“I would definitely like to see more. There is a definite need for organizational leadership orientated and specifically for empowering women,” Fischer said.
MSC LEAF was first started because of the lack of leadership groups for women. Other than the annual conferences the organization discusses women’s issues on campus and around the world. Their largest component is their relationship with the former Aggie women’s network that acts as mentors to the members and discusses career topics.
“I think it’s a great thing; I think it gives the women on campus the opportunity to say ‘OK, there are opportunities for me to be more involved and places for me to help other women,'” Barnes said.