By Kathryn Kelman/ne news editor

Plan. Pursue. Persist.

That’s what it means to lead with goals, speakers told NE Campus students during a joint program sponsored by the Student Leadership Academy and Student Success Seminar Feb. 9.

NE instructional assistant Diane Pierce presented information about NE’s S.O.S. Center, where students have access to faculty assistance and online tutoring.

She showed students how to enroll in the S.O.S. Center on Blackboard and gain access to the center’s faculty tutoring schedule and list of online study resources available to students.

NE Phi Theta Kappa adviser and English assistant professor Shewanda Riley spoke about dealing with the fear of failure, emphasized the importance of defining one’s goals and explained the criteria needed for effective goal setting.

Using Civil War-era social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ narrative, Riley highlighted the steps Douglass took to escape slavery despite his fear of capture to help students understand what it means to lead with goals.

“He did something that many of us choose not to do when we face a fear and especially a fear of failure,” Riley said. “He planned his goal, he pursued it and, despite his own emotions and fears, he persisted.”

When one narrows it down to planning, pursuing and persisting, they get at the heart of what it means to lead with goals, she said.

“The way to really lead with your goals is to become smarter with your goals,” Riley said.

Using a SMARTER goals activity, Riley presented the criteria needed for effective goal setting. SMARTER stands for specific, measurable, agreed, realistic, timely, ethical and recorded, the questions one must answer when effectively setting goals. The activity asked students to write down a goal and specify it.

“You wont know you’ve achieved your goal unless you are specific,” Riley said. “If your goal statement is vague, you will find it hard to achieve because it will be difficult to define success.”