Alex Adams '18 on Management and Leadership

The Management and Leadership Development Program (MLDP) is a one-term program that prepares students to succeed in all of their management and leadership endeavors.

Alex Adams '18, a biology modified with public policy major, participated in MLDP during the spring of her sophomore year. She joined the program because she wanted to learn new skills that would help her to expand her leadership role within the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and the National Society of Black Engineers at Dartmouth.

Alex credits MLDP with encouraging her to take initiative and share her opinion. “MLDP helped me learn that my voice matters. Even if I’m not the ‘leader’ of a group, I can still adopt a leadership role,” says Alex. Recently, Alex used her voice to encourage her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, to be more involved in community service.

After a fire in Morton Hall displaced 67 students, Alex suggested that her sorority hold a clothing drive for students affected by the fire. She worked with her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters and the Red Cross to collect six full bins of items and distribute them to the affected students. Surplus items were donated to LISTEN, a nonprofit in the Upper Valley that provides critical services for those in need.

Alex reported that her experience at MLDP was invaluable for teaching her the skills she used to organize this clothing drive. She is continuing to embrace leadership roles in other settings, because she believes that “leadership is needed while communicating with others in every aspect of your life.”