Student leaders find community in the University Honors Program

Student Leader Roundtable (SLRT), a semester-long experience available to undergraduate students in the University Honors Program (UHP), offers campus leaders a vital space for discussion, connection and skill development.

For UHP students Aneri Patel and Sanjana Katiyar, Student Leader Roundtable has been an essential element of their development as campus leaders. Patel, a neuroscience major who graduates this spring, has held leadership roles within student organizations including Midwest Dhamaka (a nationally recognized Bollywood dance competition group, where she is co-director), South Asian American Student Association and Refuge UC. Katiyar, a third-year medical sciences student, is the president of UC Rotaract and treasurer of UC Laya, a dance team focused on Indian classical performance.

Patel has been involved with SLRT since Spring 2025, while Katiyar started in the program in Fall 2024; both of them have remained in campus leadership roles throughout their time with Roundtable.

Growing skills and building connections

Student Leader Roundtable is a signature UHP experiential learning opportunity, created and managed entirely within the honors program. This structure makes the most of UHP as a resource for student learning and development, while also equipping students to actively collaborate across campus. UHP also runs a similar experience for students who want to get started in campus leadership but aren't yet organizational leaders, Emerging Leaders Roundtable.

Honors Adviser Vikki Kowalczyk, who manages the SLRT experience, described it as "the opportunity I wish I had as a student leader in my undergraduate years - a designated time and space to connect with others to share resources, challenges and ideas to better myself and my organization."

Similarly, Katiyar has found SLRT to be "a great way to network with other student organizations," adding that the focus on collaboration lends itself to practical, empathetic problem-solving.

"A lot of times, other orgs are facing the same issues as yours, so you can work together to see how they overcame them," said Katiyar.

A full SLRT experience, as a participant, lasts for one semester; students meet biweekly in small groups, for two hours at a time. The first half of each meeting consists of a presentation and activities led by student facilitators; in the second half, participants take the reins to lead a discussion. Roundtable facilitators and participants work together to set the topics and develop team- and skill-building activities.

"The topics that we go through are learning topics, and the ones the students go through are challenge topics that they want to address," said Patel.

Katiyar added: "It's not lecture-based - we are up and moving!"

A lasting impact

Patel and Katiyar have been through the SLRT experience on both of the levels it has to offer: first as participants, then as facilitators.

For Patel, who participated in the first group Katiyar facilitated in Spring 2025, the experience was initially empowering, and then inspired her to return to the program to mentor others.

"Participating in Roundtable really helped me. I was involved in a lot of clubs that year - it was kind of the peak of my involvement in leadership. So I wanted to carry that forward and see what I could learn as a facilitator," said Patel.

Katiyar's story is similar; she started as an SLRT participant in her first semester as president of UC Rotaract. "After I realized how beneficial it was, I wanted to be in that facilitator role to help other students get as much out of it as I was able to," she said.

SLRT's balance between planned discussions and organic connections helps keep the program's impact broad, even as the conversations it fosters are highly targeted.

Katiyar described her successes as a facilitator both in terms of leading structured conversations on topics such as imposter syndrome as "something a lot of students feel but don't feel comfortable sharing with others" and in helping build relationships between the students in her group.

"I had two students whose organizations were trying to reach out to each other to plan an event but couldn't communicate well," she said. "But when they were both in Roundtable, that was dedicated time for them to work toward that project."

Ultimately, SLRT aims to create a space where students can experience multifaceted growth and spark transformative connections that have a tangible impact in the campus community.

Patel summed up the program as "an opportunity to connect with other leaders and facilitate your own meetings by talking about ideas, problems and solutions that impact leadership."

For Katiyar, SLRT's impact is just as personal as it is professional. "It's the relationships I've made with my fellow roundtable leaders. I felt like I was not alone. It made me really happy that I could talk with others and build solutions to our problems."

Kowalczyk added: "Every time I facilitate a session, I learn something new to add to my own leadership development. Our students are doing amazing things in their organizations on and off-campus."

In their own words

Hear Patel and Katiyar share more about their SLRT experiences in the video below!

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