JCCC Team Are Global Collegiate Leadership Competition Champions!

JCCC students are known for exceeding expectations. At the Global Collegiate Leadership Competition (CLC), facing off against 36 colleges and universities, JCCC students proved once again that they are a force to be reckoned with—by winning first place!

This is JCCC’s third year competing in CLC alongside other schools from across the U.S. and Canada. The JCCC Leadership Institute team was one of only two community colleges competing.

The competition was held via Zoom on Saturday, April 9, but preparation was months in the making.

What is the Collegiate Leadership Competition?

The CLC is a full curriculum using 10 leadership principles. Students had to memorize these terms and use them in an activity that intentionally implements these principles in their leadership.

“The competition is about self-awareness, emotional intelligence, leadership and engagement styles,” said Cassie Jordan, team coach and Manager of Student Activities.

Weekly practices began in February, where the team learned and applied the CLC curriculum by engaging in leadership scenarios.

“During the first practice, we discussed team goals and ways to commit the curriculum to memory,” said Jordan. “They were diligent in their learning and held each other accountable.”

How the JCCC Team Set Themselves Apart

Carson Couch, JCCC’s first student coach, helped ready the team for competition.

Couch noted that being the first student coach was intimidating, but showed him he is a leader.

“Each week I coached a lesson from the CLC competition curriculum,” he said. “In the beginning I would create the lessons with Cassie, by the end I was able to interpret and coach the material on my own.”

Both coaches noted that the team had to get to know each other fast. They did this with effective communication and listening.  Most were strangers on the first meeting but ended the season as friends.

Forming close bonds only strengthened the team’s ability. JCCC was the only team to receive full points on the first activity and the only team to break 500 points.

“Even when times were stressful, team members chose to lift each other up and go above and beyond,” said Jordan. “They fought hard to not disengage from the activity and sought to find the learning in every situation.”

Benefits of the Collegiate Leadership Competition

Couch said that this experience helped him build stronger bonds with co-workers, navigate difficult situations and discover his leadership styles.

Jordan agrees that the work the team put in will benefit them at JCCC and beyond.

“Communication is huge especially since the competition went to Zoom,” she said. “I noticed that the team did a great job with staying open with communication. They got to know each other and set up boundaries and guidelines on how they wanted to give and receive feedback, and then stuck with it.”

The team was also able work on their initial instincts when problem solving, discovering that facing conflict can be the right solution.

“During an activity, a few team members expressed wanting to ‘do their own thing’ or, what we call, go ‘lone wolf,’” she explained. “This was a great self-awareness lesson because they knew they have tendency to do that, but they had a chance to work through it and stay with the team until the end. That’s what it’s all about.”

Overall, the competition gave each team member insight into how they can approach future situations using the skills they honed in CLC.

“I am so proud of our team for keeping the focus on developing as leaders and being intentional about their learning,” said Jordan.

Congratulations to the 2022 Collegiate Leadership Competition Champions:

Hannah Pimentel Hays
James Harbison
Kristin Boeckmann
Mila Garza
Ricardo Nunez
Yassin Ali
Carson Couch (Student Coach)
Cassie Jordan (Coach)

Be a Part of the Next Collegiate Leadership Competition!

CLC provides a practice field to college students who are passionate about leadership. For more information about CLC and other student leadership opportunities at JCCC, contact Cassie Jordan at cjorda35@jccc.edu.