Being a leader is about serving others, not yourself. This was the theme of the speech Tom Hill, senior vice president of student affairs, gave at the International Leadership Reception.

The International Student Council hosted the International Leadership Reception on Monday night in the Sun Room at the Memorial Union. The International Student council emphasized thanking Iowa State’s current international leaders and inspiring them and other international students to keep internationalizing our campus.

The annual event has given international leaders the possibility to meet and learn from each other and some of Iowa State’s great leaders for multiple years.

For the first time this year international students not holding a leadership position were invited to meet their own organization’s leader along with leaders from other multicultural organizations as well as other campus organizations.

Students were inspired by charismatic speakers to follow the path of leadership and practice networking for the benefit of their organizations and their own futures.

The three keynote speakers, who talked about leadership in general but also about their personal journey with leadership had encouraging words for Iowa State’s current and hopefully future leaders.

Hill stressed leadership as a tradition of Iowa State with over 850 student organizations providing opportunity to do so.

“You [international leaders] make things happen here at Iowa State. And you are role models for the newer students,” Hill said. He encouraged the international students to step out of the international area and impact other areas as well for they are well equipped to do so.

The evenings second keynote speaker Pamela Anthony, dean of students, talked about her experiences with leadership by listing six key characteristics of a leader that she believes to be of most importance.

“Center yourself, be courageous, learn how to accept the consequences of your decisions, cultivate others and have confidence,” Anthony said.

Ali Soltanshahi, international student and scholar advisor, the receptions third keynote speaker, added his experience as an immigrant to the United States, originally coming from Iran. He was able to offer a perspective on culture shock and what it is like to lead in a different country and in a different language.

Soltanshahi said he really appreciates the work that international student leaders are doing.

The leaders of Dance Marathon, the Russian speaking student association, Government of the Student Body, the Indian Student Association as well as a former International Council President explained their experiences with leadership and what they were doing in their organizations.

Close to 100 people attended the event and representatives from almost 15 organizations mingled with each other. As Onalie Ariyabandhu, president of the International Student council and senior in economics, hoped the event was a perfect opportunity for internationals to do networking and learn form other leaders to lead themselves.

The event organizers Adli Adnan, senior in industrial engineering, and Savannah Putnam, senior in biology, said that the event allowed multicultural organizations to connect and gave an opportunity for people from so many different countries to come together to share their experience and knowledge of what it really means to be a leader.