FORT KENT – When you talk to area university students about leadership, they’ll tell you that it’s usually the same group of students who take on campus responsibilities over and over again.

But those same students are hoping to change that with the help of some techniques and advice they received during a student leadership conference held over the weekend in Fort Kent.

About 60 student leaders from the Universities of Maine at Fort Kent, Presque Isle and Machias gathered at UMFK last weekend for the first-ever University of Maine System Consortium Student Leadership Conference.

The event was the brainchild of his consortium group, Scott Voisine, campus host and UMFK director of student affairs, said on Saturday. As officials work to develop a consortium among the three universities, several groups – including a student affairs group – have been meeting to discuss ideas on how to work together better.

“The student affairs group got together and decided that student leadership was one of the most important things we wanted to address,” Voisine said. “This will be an annual event and Fort Kent is hosting the first one. It’s a coming together of the three campuses to share resources, experiences and ideas.”

Gathered around tables in the Bengal’s Lair at UMFK on Saturday afternoon, students were doing precisely that. Earlier in the day, they heard a keynote address by Ryan Pelletier – the town manager of St. Agatha, Maine Municipal Association president, and 1999 UMFK graduate – and attended educational sessions on topics ranging from parliamentary procedure and event publicity to using student leadership skills to get a job after graduation.

Students were huddled in small groups, discussing what worked about the event and noting ideas they could take back with them to their campuses.

Jessica Arsenault, a UMFK senior and member of national affiliated sorority Kappa Delta Phi, said Saturday that she had been skeptical, but was glad she attended the event.

“When I first heard about this, my reaction was, ‘Leadership? What are they going to do to teach us to be better leaders?'” she said. “For me, it was a chance for meeting students from Machias and Presque Isle and getting ideas on what I can do to benefit my campus.”

Chrissy Adamec, a UMM senior, and Bibek Karki, UMPI sophomore, agreed.

“I really love it,” Adamec said of the event. “You get a feel for what other campuses in the system are like and you get to see new views.”

“This brings students together,” Karki said. “I wish they had been doing this before, sharing resources.”

In the future, Voisine said, the student affairs consortium group will work on an exchange of resident assistants, allowing RAs to spend weekends at each others’ campuses, and will push for a comprehensive student ID card that can be used for payments across campus, including for use in the cafeteria, library, laundry room and bookstore. But the group sees the continuation of the leadership conference as one of its most important projects.

“One thing that seems to be coming out of this is that students in the system don’t have the opportunity to interact often,” Voisine said. “This is great because it gives them a chance to learn from each other.”