The Iowa Student Leadership Experience (ISLE) is a free one-day leadership conference that students from Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa and University of Iowa can attend.

Every year, the conference switches between the three major universities. This year, it is at the University of Iowa. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 25.

For those who attend, they get to hear from student leaders across the three campuses. With these student leaders, they can engage, work together and practice meaningful leadership.

ISLE has been around for over a decade, and this is the first year that it began its rotation between universities.

Leadership and student organizations coordinator, Hayley Goddard, said students will have an opportunity to use a virtual business card called Linq. This is something that ISLE is giving to students so they can keep it and use it however they want.

“They almost look like a credit card,” Goddard said. “You can upload your information into it. So, if you’re at networking events, or career fairs, or things like that, essentially you can tap it to your phone and it automatically uploads your contact information to their phones. The idea behind this was to give you the opportunity to connect to one another and then have a tool moving forward in order to network in the future.”

The guest speaker is Jason LeVasseur, singer, songwriter and podcast host. He has won over 20 music awards and has even performed with artists John Mayer, Maroon 5, and Ludacris.

Goddard stated that they changed several aspects of the event from previous years based on students’ feedback. One of the changes includes a more informal environment that encourages interaction which creates more opportunities for students to network with each other. Since the event switches between universities, each campus gives students a different environment to engage with.

Goddard talked about how they were trying to make the conference more about general leadership, meaning that they are not as focused on students in leadership positions within organizations. This is a way to give students leadership experience who don’t have the opportunity to take on leadership positions.

“We are trying really hard this year to make it more general leadership, so it’s not as focused on those being leadership positions in their student organization so that way we’re meeting students where they’re at wherever they’re at,” Goddard said.

For those who are interested, students can register for this event online.