Twelve students from Mungano have registered to attend the 36th Annual Big XII Conference Feb. 28-March 3 at Kansas State University.

Representatives from universities in the “Big 12” states will be in attendance. While at the conference, Mungano members will be attending workshops for leadership, cultural diversity, social activities and also listen to keynote speakers.

Mungano President JaNay Adgers says she thinks this will be a great opportunity to gain leadership experience and learn more about diversity.

“Mungano uses some of the techniques from these workshops,” Adgers said. “It has benefitted Baker by giving us a lot of new things to try out such as the Trayvon Martin forum and voting forum.”

Katerra Shackelford said this conference has allowed her to network with students all over the country.

“We keep in touch,” Shackelford said. “You know they’re going to support you if you tell them about an event you’re planning and it’s the same if they tell you about one of their events.”

She said they also discuss ideas and often come up with techniques to make events better.

Shackelford is one of the workshop presenters at this year’s conference. Her workshop is called “Remaining ‘black’ IN ‘white’: The Unwritten Rules of Corporate Social Standard for Black Americans” and focuses on rules and social standards she feels minorities have to follow in corporate America.

Adgers said that a lot of students who attend this conference put the leadership skills they learn to use and end up attaining leadership positions in other organizations they’re involved in.

Both Adgers and Shackelford hope that this experience will bring a greater sense of “true diversity” to the university and help Baker “realize the evolvement of its students.”