For Evan Austin, leadership does not begin with a title.
It begins with understanding who you are, finding your community and continuing to move forward when things don’t go according to plan.
Austin, a four-time Paralympic swimmer for Team USA and two-time Paralympic medalist, shared that message with Kent State University students during the second annual Student Leadership Summit at the Kent Student Center.
His story — one marked by adversity, failure, resilience and ultimately success — provided a fitting opening for a summit designed to help students at every stage of their Kent State experience discover their own leadership potential.
“I was invited here to share my story that resilience and trouble and adversity are all part of a triumphant story,” Austin said. “Life is not defined in single moments. It’s about the journey. It is about the process and about continuing to pursue worthy pursuits.”
The half-day summit, hosted by Kent State’s Pepsi Leadership Center on Aug. 28, brought together students from across campus for workshops, breakout sessions and opportunities to connect with other student leaders. The event was expanded this year to welcome all students rather than focusing solely on students already serving in formal leadership roles.
That broader invitation reflects a fundamental idea behind the summit: leadership isn’t reserved for students who already have a title.
“Today, the students will learn from a few different aspects,” said Austen Shipley, Kent State’s assistant director of student leadership development in the Pepsi Leadership Center. “They’ll learn ways to develop themselves as individuals.”
Students could choose from sessions focused on individual leadership development, team dynamics and the needs of student organizations. Topics included SMART goals and everyday leadership, while other sessions encouraged students to learn from their peers and from other student organizations. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
For first-year students, the summit offered an opportunity to begin learning how to navigate Kent State and find their place on campus.
Ana Clara Bellesia of Sorocaba, Brazil, a graduate assistant in the Pepsi Leadership Center who helped plan the event, said first-year students may especially benefit from the opportunity to learn about campus resources and to begin thinking about their own leadership styles and goals.
But the summit was intentionally designed for more than first-year students.
“We definitely have seniors, sophomores and juniors coming too,” Bellesia said.
That can mean a first-year student discovering a student organization for the first time, a sophomore gaining confidence to take on a larger role, a junior learning how to lead a team or a senior preparing to carry those leadership skills into a career.
At last year’s summit, Shipley said some students who attended went on to become more involved on campus and assumed leadership roles during the semester.
“We really do think that the summit could be a catalyst for these students,” he said.
A Culture of Student Support
The summit comes at a time when Kent State’s approach to student support is receiving national attention.
Earlier this year, NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education awarded Kent State two Gold Excellence Awards in addition to the organization’s Grand Gold and Grand Silver awards. The recognition highlighted the university's CommUNITY Lab and Summer Advantage Program and placed Kent State among institutions nationally recognized for outstanding student support.
Kent State also holds the highest status, Network Champion, in the FirstGen Forward Network, recognizing the university’s work supporting first-generation students. One in three Kent State students is a first-generation college student.
That support extends well beyond academic advising. The university’s network of services includes academic success programs, peer tutoring, career development, support for military-connected students, basic-needs assistance and programs designed to help students build community and belonging.
The Student Leadership Summit adds another piece to that ecosystem: helping students develop the confidence and connections to become active participants in the university community.
For Bellesia, the new breakout sessions were an important part of that effort.
Students could choose the workshops that interested them, learn alongside their peers and build relationships with other students.
“They are not learning only from themselves,” Bellesia said. “They can learn as a group. They can make friends.”
The summit also brought together a broad cross section of campus. Participants included peer success mentors, student employees, Undergraduate Student Government members and other student leaders, with Kent State Athletics joining the summit this year for a special breakout session with Austin.
Finding Community, Finding Yourself
For Austin, the importance of community is personal.
Born with a physical disability, Austin turned to swimming as a way to find an environment where he could focus on what he could do rather than how others perceived him.
“When I was staring at the bottom of the pool, I couldn’t hear or see anyone trying to figure me out,” Austin said. “It just gave me a lot of freedom, a lot of peace.”
The road to the Paralympic podium wasn't straightforward. Austin described shoulder injuries and surgeries, missed opportunities to make teams and competitions for Team USA that did not immediately produce a medal. Eventually, continued support and persistence led him to four Paralympic Games — London in 2012, Rio in 2016, Tokyo in 2020 and Paris in 2024 — along with two medals, a gold and a bronze.
But Austin's message to students wasn’t simply about overcoming obstacles.
It was about understanding that everyone has obstacles — even when they aren’t visible.
“There’s always an opportunity to find community and build community,” Austin said.
Austin noted that many disabilities are invisible, meaning people can go through college alongside classmates without knowing the challenges they may be facing.
His larger point applies to everyone: Students don’t have to have everything figured out before they can become leaders.
“When we’re reminded in a setting like this at a university, a campus, a community that, oh, there’s someone who is visibly not perfect, but he’s living a very joyful life and he seems to have gotten to do a lot of cool things because of it, maybe I should be the fullest and most authentic version of myself,” Austin said. “And I think when we start seeing students and people being the most authentic version of themselves, they start being the most authentic leaders as well.”
That may be the most important lesson of the Student Leadership Summit.
Students don’t need to wait until they are presidents of organizations, captains of teams or preparing to graduate to begin leading.
They can start by getting involved. By asking questions. By finding people who share their interests. By learning from a setback. By helping someone else.
And by finding their own place in the Kent State community.
“Whether you’re a freshman in college, or maybe you’re starting your last fall semester as a senior, there’s always an opportunity to find community and build community,” Austin said.
