DOVER, Del. --- The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), in partnership with TIAA, hosted the 2023 Dr. Dennis E. Thomas Student Leadership Symposium Friday and Saturday, March 10-11, 2023, in Norfolk, Va., in conjunction with the 2023 MEAC Basketball Tournament.
 
Student leaders from the MEAC's eight member institutions engaged in programming to expand their leadership and discuss conflict resolution, problem solving and leadership styles. In addition, the symposium provided opportunities for students to enhance their personal and professional networks, and gain insight into entrepreneurship and branding.
 
This year's symposium, themed Step IN Future Leaders, focused on leadership development, mental health, financial literacy and team building sessions facilitated by executives from TIAA, Disney on the Yard, Coca-Cola, and the PA4WN Lab.
 
Various members of the Delaware State athletic community offered some insight into their experience from this event:
 
"The inaugural MEAC Leadership Symposium was an experience that I am truly honored to have. I got the opportunity to learn and listen to some of the best in the game that look exactly like me! I got to understand the differences in perspective. I was taught how to have the upper hand in professional settings. I got to network with people that I would have never met if it wasn't for this event. I am so excited to bring all these new things back to Delaware State University and a chance to show my peers how we can be successful, and how to make use of the tools that we already have in order to be great!  -Hannah McMasters (Women's Lacrosse)
 
"The MEAC Leadership Symposium gave us all a chance to meet with powerful and inspirational leaders. One thing I took from it was the fact that all of the people that spoke to us in these great positions looked like us and came from HBCU's around the country. They each essentially told us the road wasn't perfect getting there but all had their own uniqueness." - Konner Foster (Football)
 
"This year's MEAC Leadership Symposium, was an experience I am overly grateful to have been accepted and able to participate in it. Big shoutout to Ms. Dominique Garcia for putting it all together for the first time ever and making it unforgettable! The symposium consisted of some amazing and inspiring speakers, including Will Bagget of Emergent Executives, Dewey Norwood Jr, of Wells Fargo and Tracy Jones of PA4WN Lab taught and informed us on many great speaking and leadership techniques that I am learning how to transfer to my everyday life." - Yeda Couto-Erickson (Women's Lacrosse)

The Dr. Dennis E. Thomas Student Leadership Symposium is a conference initiative established by the MEAC Council of Presidents and Chancellors, and it is named for Dr. Dennis E. Thomas, who served the conference as commissioner from 2002 until his retirement in 2021.