Emerging Leaders Conference
Emerging Leaders Conference - 2025-2026
The virtual portion of this year's ELC is NOW OPEN and closes on Friday, December 19, 2025! The spring in-person conference will take place on March 4 at the UT Tyler Alumni House! If your school is interested in participating, please reach out to our Coordinator, Rebecca Hale, as soon as possible.
What is it?
The UT Tyler Center for Ethics began hosting the Emerging Leaders Conference in 2010. This conference provides opportunities for high school student groups to learn about leadership theory and practice from research and field experts. It also challenges these groups to design and implement community-focused leadership projects of their own. Our goal is that students who participate in these projects develop into leaders committed to building better communities.
How does it work?
The ELC follows a two-semester model with an online portion in the fall and an in-person conference in the spring. In the fall, the Center for Ethics provides an open online Canvas course with pre-recorded video presentations on leadership theory, application, and practical ideas, along with project details and guidelines. Each participating school watches the presentations and, together, design a project to implement over the course of the school year in their schools and/or community. The students create a 5-10 minute video explaining their project and submit it via the Canvas course instructions by Friday, December 19, 2025. Our conference organizers will then review the submissions and confirm spring attendance with each group.
In the spring, the Center for Ethics hosts the in-person portion of the conference on the UT Tyler campus. Each school will present their project and share how it impacted them and others. The students will also have the opportunity to experience a keynote speech and engage in team-building activities, a campus tour, as well as a mixer to encourage collaboration among students and schools. This cycle, the spring in-person conference will take place on Wednesday, March 4, 2026 at the UT Tyler Alumni House!