Welcome to the LD/WSL Blog!
We hope that this blog will be a great way to:
- Find out about events that are happening with WSL
- Learn more about the person and principles of Jesus
- Share stories of God's impact through inter-generational relationships
WSL Programs: Boardroom Meetings
With efforts to further develop and encourage intergenerational relationships surrounding the WSL forum, we have rekindled Boardroom Meetings. As a start, WSL Council members have been graciously hospitable, opening up their schedules and place of work to invite groups of college students for lunch and fellowship. The time is spent sharing conversations about their journey as a marketplace leader while also modeling the importance of Jesus Christ in their lives.
Each Boardroom Meeting is opened and closed with prayer and as lunch is shared in the boardroom, professionals are able to share their story with students in a real, authentic way. As a result, students are further inspired to seek out God's calling in their own life wherever that might lead them.Student groups from UW and SPU have been meeting the last couple months with market place leaders such as Scott Hardman, George Petrie, and Russ Johnson.
Relationships from these meetings have continued as studentsleave with friendships and connections with peers and leaders in our community.We hope to see these relationships grow and deepen as we expect interest to grow. Students and marketplace leaders are challenged and blessed by the opportunity to share life with one another.
To get more information about how to attend or host students for a Boardroom Meeting, contact: Becky Jo Tuell Simpson at beckyjo@wafamily.com.
Forum Reflection: Jenica Baldwin
First Time Attendee
As a first time attendee to the Washington Student Leadership Forum, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. But I knew that from the first dinner, sitting next to an ex-president of Young Life and hearing him say to me, “Working for Young Life is one of the best things you can do,” only to be followed by an incredible testimony to how God works in the most mysterious and unfathomable ways, I knew I was in for a treat.
After hearing all the speakers from the forum, I couldn’t help but recognize the overarching theme that each one shared in their personal stories that gave me a renewed inspiration and hope to have faith in this: God has a bigger plan that I can ever grasp or imagine.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:9
It was the conversations with my small group leaders, Gary and Judy Hopkins, who challenged me to continue to chase what I love and that their experience on Young Life staff has been a life-giving rewarding surprise. It was the advice received from marketplace leaders like Scott Hardman and George Petrie – Scott said: “Life doesn’t go how you think it will” and George has seen, in his life, “God meet(s) the needs of humans,” both confident those truths will become more and more evident as we step into God’s bigger story.
In reflecting on the forum’s speaker’s – Ben Malcolmson, Hattie Kauffman, and Shandel Slaten – stories, I was reminded of this conclusion: we all have unfinished stories in which God is working in and through us. I am confident that He is using what is at work currently to create something that is more than I can comprehend.
Ironically (others might think ‘naturally’ would be a more fitting term), I have decided to go on Young Life Staff this coming fall to continue in the work of the Lord at Seattle Pacific University. I am thrilled. I am frightened. I am ready to be challenged and more than anything, I am ready to rely on the Lord for all that he has to teach me and for all the lessons brewing soon to be revealed to me, and further widen the vision of the Lord in my life.
Because of the intergenerational relationships created and formed at the Washington Student Leadership Forum, not only have I found encouragement in my decision, but I have seen just the beginning of the connectedness of God’s kingdom and what He intends it to look like here on this earth and in this lifetime.
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6
Speaker Bio: Ben Malcolmson
WSL 2014 Forum Thursday Night Speaker
Meet Ben Malcolmson – former walk-on at USC and later director of online media for USC’s football program. With a masters in communications management, he wound up working as Pete Carroll's 'nonfootball' assistant while at USC, and made the move to Seattle with him and became a part of the NFL family together. He recently finished his seventh season as external relations and assistant to the head coach, where he also operates Carroll's Twitter and websites for the newly crowned Super Bowl Champions, the Seattle Seahawks.
Native of Dallas, Texas, Ben now lives on Mercer Island and volunteers both with Young Life and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
This year at the forum, Ben will be speaking about his journey as a walk-on wide receiver for the USC Trojans in addition to the supernatural and inspirational events that were transpired out of that story. He might even be able to share some sideline Super Bowl stories that couldn't be shared in 140 characters or less.
For more about Ben, you can follow him on Twitter and keep an eye on what he's tweeting for Coach Carroll here.
Speaker Bio: Shandel Slaten
WSL 2014 Forum Friday Night Speaker
Meet Shandel Slaten – speak, author and founder of True Life Coaching which is based in Seattle, WA. Shandel is a Master Certified Coach who enjoys working with organizations to develop high performing teams via communication and trust. She graduated summa cum laude in Psychology with a minor in Biblical studies from Vanguard University. After 9 years in full-time church ministry, she founded TLC where she has coached thousands of professionals in a plethora of ways –to define and execute their purpose as well as strengthen their leadership skills. Shandel has successfully helped entrepreneurs and employees alike to reach their professional and personal goals.
Shandel says she is ‘the favorite aunt for sure’ of her 2 nieces and 3 nephews, who she is crazy about. She grew up just outside of Reno, Nevada where her family still lives and still splits her time in Reno and Seattle.
Shandel is excited to be speaking at the forum this year as she will be touching on how our individual story impacts and shapes us so that we can use our gifts as Jesus-centered leaders. The way Shandel refers to this story is: “trusting God with your story” (the whole story including talents, strengths, and elements of our lives).
To learn more about Shandel, follow her on Twitter and to read her blog, visit http://www.truelifecoaching.com/.
Student Story: Janessa Hoffard
One of the many students that attended the WSL Forum last year.
She walked away with an experience she will forever be thankful for.
Sophomore age at Seattle Pacific University.
Lives in the U-District.
Graduating this June in communication.
“Janessa! You have to go to this conference,” her brother Taylor asked her one day. “Well, what is it?” “It’s just this really cool thing and you have to go.” Taylor was amongst other individuals that had told Janessa the same exact thing, “Just go!” Unsure about what the Washington Student Leadership forum exactly was, Janessa signed up last minute with a go-getter attitude and decided to ‘just go.’
As a freshman at SPU, Janessa was seeking community. Having done running start in high school and being enrolled in upper level division classes, being surrounded by older people made it difficult to make friends. When an invitation to go to the forum came up, she decided to take a leap of faith.
What was the most surprising part about your experience?
Janessa: “I don’t think I was surprised by anything in particular, but the forum was all about relationships for me. I didn’t have any expectations of the forum itself, and I do not remember specific speakers and what they had to say or what our small groups talked about, but the girl that was in my car with me is now my roommate & best friend.”
Janessa currently lives in the Vision 16 house through University Christian Housing with 28 other gals (http://vision16.net/who-we-are/). Because she showed up to seek and knock, God answered & rewarded her attentiveness and willing attitude by connecting her with new friends and providing the community she was searching for. Her and her roommate still talk about the forum and how they met. Her roommate said: “I don’t even know why I went to the forum! But I’m glad I did,” and Janessa realized, ‘Maybe the only reason you went is so that I could meet you and be in this house now.’
Any other particular relationships you created while at the Forum?
Janessa: “Yes! My small group leader, Becky Jo, and I hit it off. I was interested in finding a mentor figure in my life and asked her to take on that role. This fall, we’ve been meeting and it’s been such an encouraging friendship to have.”
What would you say to someone who is considering going?
Janessa: “If you feel like you’re supposed to go, just go. If you give all of yourself, God can do really cool things if you just show up. And it’s worth it.”
