Perry’s Workshop

by Makayla Secrist Staff Writer

Leadership skills are highly valued in todays job market and clever minds are taking advantage. Tawan Perry, an award winning author and motivational speaker across the United States, hosted a leadership workshop for college students on Tuesday, Oct 20.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the event was hosted virtually over the Zoom Meetings platform. Perry was announced by Kelby Homeister the student activities coordinator and women’s basketball coach of Southeastern Community College. Homeister gave a little background on the speaker before Perry officially took over the workshop.

Homeister explained that after Perry had “barely completed high school” he struggled for years in community college to better himself. Perry was awarded a full academic scholarship and graduated college. From there Perry became an internationally known speaker and author. His books include Success Starts with You, Up Your Org: A Guide to help Student Leaders Thrive, Sophmore Success: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Every Goal and Having a Great Time in Your Second Year of College, and several more you can find on his website here.

Perry then thanked his host before asking the attendants to grab a pencil or pen and some paper to draw a pig. After the students completed the task he finally explained the method to his madness. The pig drawing was part of a personality test where how you draw it helps depict different aspects you see in yourself. For example those who drew their picture at the top of the page tend to be more optimistic, those on the bottom pessimistic, and the rest in the middle as realists.

After going over the results with students, Perry then drew symbolism from the well known story of the Three Little Pigs and emphasized the importance of what students are building their leadership skills with. If not built from solid stone and bricks, life (the big bad wolf) will quickly destroy everything you had built up.

Perry often interacted directly with students, asking pointed questions and generally keeping everyone in attendance involved in the workshop. He talked a lot about leading in the challenging times of 2020, “It is rare for individuals never to be confronted with adversity during the course of their lifetime,” said Perry, “You can’t keep a person who really wants to be successful down.”

Perry also emphasized the importance of the students own physical and mental health when taking on leadership roles. With physical encompassing the obvious of adequate sleep and nutritious foods, he pointed out how being grateful for what you already have can do wonders for mental health, “The more grateful you are the more you get out of life,” said Perry.

Perry ended the event reminding students to vote in the upcoming election, but to also vote on themselves in the future, “The biggest vote you can make is a vote of confidence for yourself.”