HPU Hosts Second Annual Strickland Women’s Leadership Summit

High Point University hosted the second annual Elizabeth Miller Strickland Women’s Leadership Summit on March 30 in Congdon Hall. HPU welcomed Lisa Sun, founder and CEO of lifestyle company GRAVITAS, as the keynote speaker of the event. 

“Female friendship is perhaps one of the most important friendships you will have in your life,” said Sun. “As I look around the room, I feel the power of sisterhood today. Look at the power of the pack, it has real impact.”

Students, faculty and staff filled the auditorium to hear Sun speak and gain wisdom from her experiences. She imparted a powerful message about self-confidence and how you can generate this confidence internally and externally.

“Confidence is a choice,” said Sun. “It’s a daily, active choice. What do I mean by that? We are all born fully self-confident. At some point in our adolescence, we start to lose that, we start to doubt ourselves. If you replace self-belief with self-doubt, there is no action. Every single day we need to make a conscious choice to sit in our flaws and still hold ourselves in high regard. I can tell you that this is possible.”

She then went on to ask audience members to pair up and share what their superpowers are. These superpowers are things they believe they are the best in the world at. After going through this exercise with the audience, Sun broke down the most common eight superpowers that people have.

Leading
Performing
Achieving
Giving
Knowing
Creating
Believing
Self-sustaining

“This is a new way of thinking of confidence,” said Sun. “Choose it because it’s an active daily choice, know your superpowers before anyone else sees them and then manage your inner critic. Your life story is your leadership story.”

The event included a Q&A and panel discussion, as well as a networking opportunity afterward for students to connect with the Strickland Women’s Leadership Council.

Sun and Laurna C. Godwin, a member of the Strickland Women’s Leadership Council and president of Vector Communications in St. Louis, Missouri, answered questions from HPU students during the Q&A.

Godwin addressed a portion of Sun’s new book “Gravitas,” about the idea of being mentorable and how students can use this in their relationships moving forward.

“Mentoring is a key component for the Strickland Women’s Leadership Council, and it is something you mentioned in your book,” said Godwin. “You say in your book that we have to make ourselves mentorable. That’s the word you used. What do you mean by that?”

“What I think about is to be able to receive feedback in a way that’s constructive and that you want to improve. A mentor will give constructive feedback to those they care about. If I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t take this moment to tell you. How do I make myself mentorable then? If you give me feedback, I will do something about it. I will take action.”

Julia Velasquez, a senior neuroscience major from Chicago, Illinois, is a member of the inaugural Strickland Women’s LIFT Fellowship Program, which provides networking, leadership, development, mentorship and coaching for female students interested in holding positions of leadership. She says it’s exciting to see the summit and the LIFT scholars grow, even after just two years of the program.

“This is only our second summit, so I’m truly excited to see where we go from here,” said Velasquez. “As a senior looking back at my HPU career, it’s been amazing to watch how much the program has grown, how our interactions with the council have become stronger and more meaningful, and the opportunities are abounding in our time spent with these strong female leaders. This is such a unique opportunity, and I am so grateful for it.”

Last year, at the inaugural event, Duke Energy CEO, chair and president Lynn Good was the featured speaker.

The Strickland Women’s Leadership Council was first established in August 2020 as part of a generous $12 million gift from Elizabeth Miller Strickland. The council was founded on Strickland’s belief that the empowerment of women in business and leadership is a life skill worth pursuing.