Rowan Larson

The 100 Who Influence event, a luncheon for student leaders to meet and converse with the Board of Trustees, has been a way for students and board members to explore topics that they care about for 15 years. In past years, the luncheon primarily focused on leadership and how to grow interpersonally alongside growing responsibilities.
Time and time again, student leaders of organizations and athletics have cemented themselves as a cornerstone of Hamline University. Requiring a special set of skills, students who lead not only take on their own responsibilities, but act as a resource for others on campus. These skills are often fostered through experience, as well as learning from those who came before them.
“We would gather about 100 people who are leaders within Hamline one way or another … for a conversation about leadership,” Patti Klein-Kersten, Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs, said. Klein-Kersten went on to highlight some of the opportunities students who attended received. “Back in the day, there was a keynote speaker on leadership and they talked,” Klein-Kersten said. “It was just a nice dinner event. Students got to meet board members and board members got to meet students, and they got to learn a little bit about each other.”
Fifteen years later, the event still prioritizes connecting students with those in leadership positions, especially those who lead from off campus.
“[The event] is a way for student leaders on campus to engage with the Board of Trustees because you always hear about the Board of Trustees, but you don’t really ever see them on campus, or you don’t know who they are, what do they do?” Travis Matthews, external president of the Hamline Undergraduate Student Congress (HUSC), said. Matthews explained the importance of inviting student leaders to this event, especially those who are not compensated or who work around the clock.
“We go in the lines of student leaders and the students who are pushing the university forward, who are giving back to Hamline,” Matthews said.
Those who were invited to attend the luncheon were notified via email by Matthews and Internal President of HUSC Abi Grace Mart. Matthews and Mart hand-selected student leaders from a list of names given to them by athletic leaders and organizations they have documented in their records.
Given the capabilities of the event space and the bandwidth of those involved with planning the event, only choosing 100 students has proven to be a difficult task, even for leaders with more experience.
“I haven’t directly done the RSVP list, but I have had conversations while I’ve been in my role,” Klein-Kersten said. “To say, ‘Okay, let’s not miss people’ on one end, but also, ‘we [have] got to draw a line someplace in the invitation piece.”
With over 1,500 undergraduate students on the Hamline University campus, student leaders can take many different forms at various levels of responsibility, including those who live off campus.
“Let’s say you’re a commuter student, go to class, you might mind your business, and you get out by the end of [the] day, but you still care about your university. I don’t know that because you’re not on one of these lists,” Matthews said.
Sophomore Maria Garcia, an informal leader in Hamline’s theater, pushed back on this event, explaining that she was not even aware of it to begin with.
“It seems quite elitist to me,” Garcia said. “I think that just because somebody is in a leadership position doesn’t mean that they necessarily use that correctly or are a good leader.”
Mart, however, emphasized that this event was created to serve students and help foster the next generation of leaders.
“We don’t want to create a hierarchy or anything like that,” Mart said. “We don’t think that is what we’re doing, and like I said, it’s kind of been this way for years.”
Regardless of the intention of the event, the impact has left some students who are not in a formal leadership position, like Garcia, with more questions for leaders on campus, including whether or not this event should continue to exist at all.
“I definitely have been in situations on campus where people who are in leadership roles above me don’t take leadership or initiative, they just got voted in or they got hired into that position because it was a popularity contest. And now they have this position, and they don’t do anything with it,” Garcia said. “Just because it’s been this way for years doesn’t mean that that’s the way that works.”
Although the event may be limited to 100 students, the achievements that student leaders have made on campus are monumental. With an ever-changing culture both on and off campus, student leaders continue to inspire others to make the change they wish to see in the world.