UZA and UZA Synyster Syn Founder Sydoney Banks Trip to LeaderShape

Photos by Erica Horihan

UZA and UZA Synyster Syn Founder 
Sydoney Banks Trip to LeaderShape. 


About  LeaderShape®
LeaderShape® is a community of individuals working to create a world that does not exist right now except in moments. 

The world we want to experience is where everyone leads with integrity and embraces living in possibility. Where anything is possible. Where everyone sees their own gifts and finds ways to use them for the greater good. We want to see our best selves. 

A few men in the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity started LeaderShape® in the early 1980’s. Through many conversations in the basement of their headquarters, a vision was created to develop a week long immersion experience to help the men of that fraternity become better leaders. In the process of doing so, they realized that leadership is not just for Greek men, but also for everyone. With the development of the LeaderShape® Institute™ in 1986 and subsequent invitations to non-Greek participants, the decision was made to start a unique not-for-profit called LeaderShape® so that the program would not be seen as only for Greek students. They succeeded.

Ever since that period of time, LeaderShape® has grown through the recommendations of those that have participated in our programs. They shared their experience and invited others to participate as well. 

We are “about” bringing our vision to reality. We invite you to join us. 

www.leadershape.org
www.facebook.com/LeaderShapeOrg

LeaderShape 2017
Thank you all!

Sydoney was one of the few selected by the PVCC Student Life Center to have the opportunity to attend LeaderShape for spring 2017.  When Syd found out she was selected, she could not believe it.  To apply for LeaderShape you have to fill out paperwork and complete an interview with the selecting committee.  Syd was very nervous and anxious while waiting even though she did her best and she finally was selected and very grateful.  Retreat Week:  Sunday, May 21st - Friday, May 26th, 2017.  The retreat will take place at CGCC and ASU Polytechnic.  She wants to thank Mike Ho for selecting her and allowing her this unique and extra special opportunity to attend LeaderShape as a student representative for PVCC.

Mike, you are truly amazing and so supportive of me and I am very blessed and sincerely thankful to have you and everyone at PVCC Student Life involved with me and my student life while I attend PVCC.  I owe a lot to you, Mike Ho!  Thank you so very much!  Thank you also, Rowdy Duncan, for all your love and support!

Thank You Mike Ho! 

www.paradisevalley.edu/student-life/leadership-programs/leadershape-2017

My Amazing Family Cluster We Are Groot!

I was blessed with such a special and outstanding Family Cluster at LeaderShape. 
I love you also much! I had an amazing time with you.
 I will hold on to my memories with you forever. 
We had the best mother, and Cluster leader of all Ila Washington. 
Ila I love you so much! Thank you Ila for all your hard work, love and support.
 You made We Are Groot so specail, and we had the best leader to guide us.
What a good looking group of such wonderful leaders.
I loved doing skits with you guys, and playing Tiffany's Grandmother.
I wish, and hope all your dreams come true.
Don't give up, and know you are loved.
Keep It Sexy! 

We are Groot Skits

Syd said this was such an amazing experience and she got very close to many others while they too were attending LeaderShape.  Syd learned a lot while at LeaderShape, but Syd found the relationships and bonds of fellowship and love to be the most rewarding.  Syd had a very rough day why she was away at LeaderShape, when she learned of an amazing woman’s passing away, who happened to be a very special friend of Syd’s family.  The loss was extra hard because she was away from home, but with the love and support of the group Syd made it through the loss.  I was very upset to have lost such an extraordinary human from the world, Ms. Windy West.  I had just seen her the weekend before LeaderShape and she appeared to be her fantastic self.  She was so awesomely amazing and a great leader herself; she was a kind, beautiful, inspiring human being.  She will be missed and will always remain close to my heart as well as and in the heart of UZA.  Our prayers and hearts go out to her family and the multitude of friends she had in the entertainment world.  You will always be carried with us, Windy.  It was such a fine privilege and honor to have the opportunity to meet you as well as to work with you and to be able to call you a friend.

Amazing Panel of Speakers

Hold on to this experience

Syd learned at LeaderShape how to be a successful leader and to use it for good and to make a real difference with positive social change.  Syd also learned life can be short and is very precious.  Relationships are so very special and you should make the best of those relationships while you have them, before they may be gone.  You really never know when you might lose them.  True friendship is difficult to find, but not impossible to have and you need to nourish it to keep it alive and healthy.  Humans are social beings and we need each other for healthy existences.  Dearly hold on to your friendships and never let go.  MAKE TIME FOR YOUR FRIENDS AND LOVE ONES, FOR NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT!  To show up and share time is very important and means so much for everyone involved.  Make time to be involved in the lives of those you really care about.  Friendships are not just one-sided and only about you; they are about both you and your friend and that means giving of yourself as well as receiving of your friends.  Please enjoy life and be there for others, especially your loved ones and your friends.  Make new friends for they can last forever!

Getting Down at LeaderShape with Mo!
Mo had some pretty good dance moves.

LeaderShape know how to party!
So much fun, and helps keep the energy up!

Syd also learned to be a great leader is to be selfless, it is not about you, and it is about your team.  The leader is successful when their team is successful.  The worst type of leader is the one that is selfish and usually they care more about themselves then they care about their team.  These leaders use their power for selfishness or even for evil and often abuse their powers to get personal gain.  I have seen this type of leadership a lot and it has even happened to me in my life more times than I would like to recall.  Greed, pride, and power take over and the leader miss uses their leadership and the sad thing is that unaware followers will blindly follow the leader and never even know what is really going on.  I want to lead with integrity and be the best leader that I can and lead with my heart and my values for the benefit of my entire group’s success.  I want to build a beloved community and use positive social change for the betterment of my community as well as for the whole world around me.  I want to use my leadership for good and for positivity to assist others; to build them up so that we can all help ourselves as we also help enrich those around us that we come into contact with to build a beautiful, caring, resourceful, beloved community.

LeaderShape Fun

Eating Time

Sydoney performed several different activities that bonded her with all kinds of different people from many different schools, backgrounds, countries, and beliefs.  Syd had a blast and learned so much from everyone and everything they all did.  Syd also worked on her dream while there at LeaderShape; she wants to own her own haunted house, similar to the one that was in Utah, the legendary Rocky Point Haunted House.  She wants a haunted house that will help people and that will provide positive social changes and will teach youth and adults several various skills.  She wants a haunted house that is more than just a haunted house; one that will truly be a family for those that work in it, work for it, and for those that will attend it as well.  She wants to help others and to make a real positive difference in the haunted attraction industry for employees, actors, and even for patrons of the haunt.  Haunted attraction actors love what they do so much that they will put up with a lot, even when it is unfair and even wrong, and there is room for a lot of improvement for everyone.

Some of LeaderShape Activities

Syd learned so much and when it was time to go home it was hard to say goodbye and leave all those she had formed friendships with.  She hopes to stay in touch with her new LeaderShape family and some of them might even come to visit at some of UZA’s events and maybe even join her on this evolving mission to change the world for greatness and success.

We did it guys we graduated LeaderShape 2017!

I know the real James Bond!

James you did a fantastic job 
on your first LeaderShape!

LeaderShape Staff 2017

Thank you all so much for your hard work, Late nights, and lack of sleep, putting up with us, love, support, humor, personality, leadership, jokes, stories, strengths,
 time, energy, paperwork and everything else you did.
We could not have asked for a better team. You did an amazing job. 
I hope we all learned something. I hope we all go go out into the world, and use what we have learned, and make a difference.
 I hope we make you all proud.