Southeast Missouri State University junior Yasodh Jayathilake and Southeast retention coordinator Sean Spinks have collaborated to install a chapter of The National Society of Leadership and Success, also known as Sigma Alpha Pi, on Southeast’s campus.

The society serves as a means of acquiring and developing intuitive leaders and people with leadership qualities and potential. The chapter at Southeast officially was started on Oct. 18, and now plans have been made to begin recruitment for members this December.

“Our target population that we will be reaching out to will be students who have at least a 2.75 GPA or above and are sophomores and juniors,” Spinks said. “We really want to tackle that population because we wanted the freshmen to get used to everything and get adjusted to campus life, and we can catch [the sophomores and juniors] in that middle phase, it would really go a long way to becoming a productive senior.”

Although Sigma Alpha Pi has no set GPA requirement, Southeast’s chapter wishes to begin the first stage of recruitment by surveying students for a certain GPA category.

“GPA is important [because] we need people who are educated to become leaders,” Jayathilake said. “So we really need to find that sweet spot in the GPA list to kind of help people out.”

Jayathilake believes this program is important to Southeast because it gives students of various academic standings the chance to become good leaders. He said he noticed students in the university who have leadership roles in one area usually dominate leadership roles in most other areas of interest as well.

“I really think that students here in SEMO will have a better chance at becoming better leaders and know better leadership through this program,” Jayathilake said. “So what we try to do is educate students how to become better leaders, how to find their leadership skills and then do something big for them later, for the world and the community.”

All members get access to a job bank and scholarship applications, and recommendation letters from the Southeast chapter’s executive board, according to Spinks The society also has connections with many prominent names and celebrities who are also members, and will showcase live streams of these members speaking for the program.

Southeast’s chapter can then present those live streams to the students at no cost to the university or the chapter. Among these high-profile members include television personality Anderson Cooper, hip-hop artist Common and actor Jesse Eisenberg.

The society was discovered by Jayathilake when he began looking into leadership programs for the university. After looking at several limited options on Southeast’s campus, Jayathilake came across the NSLS online.

After researching ways to get involved with the society, he discovered that a chapter did not exist at Southeast. He sent a request to establish a chapter at the university, and after submitting the required information and attending several interviews he was approved to begin the chapter’s creation.

After the acceptance, Jayathilake went to the society’s headquarters in New Jersey on a paid internship to learn about creating and managing a society chapter, what they are about and the benefits that go with being a member.

Members will pay a one-time fee of $85, which is used for scholarship funding and management of the chapter. However, unlike other leadership programs, paying the fee does not grant the member official induction into the chapter. Once the fee is paid, the student will go through a five-step orientation and leadership training course, after which the member is officially inducted into the society.

Once the Southeast chapter is fully established, they plan to host a number of activities around campus, including fundraisers and attending activity fairs. Sigma Alpha Pi hopes to spread awareness of the growing society chapter as it progresses.