Karin at FIU

Karin recently presented the opening and closing keynotes at Florida International University’s “Leadership Summit”. Click here to read the article in it’s entirety.

(Or the whole link if you’d rather…  http://www.fiusm.com/articles/4847-summit-helps-students-gain-leaderships-skills )

 

Here’s an exerpt from the article…

"...This year's summit was made up of three concurrent blocks of eight
sessions each and an opening keynote session with speaker Karin
Malkowski Stende, president of Stende Inspirations, an organization
dedicated to helping enhance the quality of student life on campus
through speakers and trainers, according to its Web site.

"I was thrilled to be invited because I think there is so much
potential for college students in particular to change the world and
make it a more positive place," said Stende, who was visiting the
University for the first time. Stende lead the participants through 
several introductory activities and ice breakers.
...At the end of the summit, most participants, including staff
members, were wearing a blue ribbon with gold lettering that read "Who
I am Makes a Difference." The concept of the blue ribbons was created
by Helice Bridges in the 1980's, who also trained Stende as a "blue
ribbon ambassador." The blue ribbon ceremony consists of taking a
minute to acknowledge people who may have made an impact on a person's
life and presenting them with a blue ribbon, according to Stende. Then
those people are given another three ribbons so they can pass them
along to others.
The "Who I am Makes a Difference" acknowledgement process has been
translated into 12 languages and received the 2005 The Mahatma Gandhi
Global Nonviolence Award, according to its Web site.
"I already see students taking more ribbons and saying, 'I want to
send it to my teachers,' or 'I want to acknowledge my mom or somebody
else I know,'" said Stende. "And I really do believe that the students
here are going to take those ribbons and paint Florida blue."..."