Welcome to the official website for Missouri Leadership Seminar!
To nominate a student, please visit our Schools page.
MLS 2026, the 40th Missouri Leadership Seminar, will take place May 29th-31st at the University of Central Missouri!
What is MissourI Leadership Seminar?
Our mission is to empower young adults to expand their minds and to be truer to themselves so that they can develop into leaders who change lives and make positive differences in their local communities and the world.
Missouri Leadership Seminar is an unforgettable weekend experience that immerses a select group of high school sophomores in an environment that brings out their inner leaders. Student ambassadors are exposed to panels of professional speakers on many of today’s most pressing issues, are encouraged to express their unique opinions in a supportive environment, and learn to learn through team-building activities. The MLS experience is free of charge to the ambassadors selected to attend.
Our Core Values:
- Fully Known, Fully Loved
- Radical Inclusivity
- Unequivocal Belonging & Individuality
- Persistent Positivity
- Limitless Growth
- Equitable Empowerment
- Energetic, Emphatic Wavemaking
Some Testimonials From Over the Years
“MLS changed my life and taught me that it’s okay to feel emotions, that it’s okay to be vulnerable with your peers and to listen to one another. I never knew a ‘home’ felt like before then. Everyone is so accepting and loving that MLS truly feels like home.” -Ava Potter, 2022 ambassador
“MLS is a home for everyone’s inner child to be heard. I constantly use my experience at MLS as a reminder of the version of me that I continue to work towards. I tell everyone that if I could look back in time and pick out an experience as life-changing, it would be MLS. It caused a tangible rift in the way I interacted with everyone after that weekend.” -Serena, 2018 ambassador, now Director of GFD
“MLS is something I wish everyone had the chance to attend. Take the opportunity that you have been given, and do something great in your community with what you learn! As a Missouri Leadership Seminar ambassador, you learn leadership through hands-on experiences instead of lectures. I liked the diversity panel the most because it showed that, although we all look and act so much alike, we are all so different at the same time. No matter where you come from or what your story is, you are in an atmosphere where no one will judge you, and that is what makes it so great. Don’t second-guess yourself on attending the seminar because you’ll miss out on so much!” -Lauren Cox, 2016 ambassador
“I wanted to let you know that our daughter left that seminar with such enthusiasm and positivity, and I can’t thank Missouri Leadership enough. Sometimes, kids need just a little motivation and confidence to know that they can make a difference. Our daughter struggles with that confidence daily, but I truly believe that after this seminar, she feels she can conquer the world. She has made some friends that will hopefully last a lifetime.” -Parent of 2013 ambassador
What happens at MLS?
1. Activities & Leadership Opportunities – click to learn more!
There are many team-building and group activities at MLS. From games and fun challenges to group discussions and projects, team-building at seminar allows students to interact with other ambassadors and express opinions in a small-group setting. Students have ample opportunities to lead at seminar. By expressing opinions in facilitated discussions, volunteering to lead group challenges, or introducing activities to the weekend as a whole, students have the opportunity to grow leadership skills as they feel comfortable.
2. Panels
Each year, the MLS Board of Directors plans out panels for seminar on current topics, two of which are described below. Professionals with varying points of view are invited to come speak to the ambassadors on the panel topic. During small group break-out discussions, ambassadors get the opportunity to interact with each panelist and ask questions.
Dinner With A PRo (DWAP)
During Dinner with a Pro (DWAP), ambassadors are invited to speak with professionals from a wide range of occupations. Ambassadors have the opportunity to learn about the professionals’ fields of work and ask the Pro questions in a small-group setting. Ambassadors rotate several times so that they can meet and converse with several different professionals during the course of the panel. Some of the careers covered in previous years include:
FBI Agent / Personal Trainer / Engineer / Doctor / Insurance Agent / Banket / Marketing Pro / Entrepreneur
Volunteerism
MLS is an organization focused on giving back. A charity event is always part of MLS. In past years, ambassadors worked in groups to make and donate blankets to the local veterans home, decorated lanterns for a veterans event, and other projects for different demographics.
Every junior staff member who returns to MLS has completed 25 hours of community service. MLS continues to encourage ambassadors and alumni to volunteer throughout the year. Besides requiring hours of community service, we also set up year-long volunteering activities with various organizations/charities. Some of those we have volunteered with recently include:
i-ROK Foundation / Missouri Veterans Home / St. Louis Food Bank / The Optimists: MLS has a close bond with Optimist Clubs. Many of our staff volunteers are Optimist Club members, and much of MLS funding comes from charitable donations from the Optimists. MLS alumni have several opportunities throughout the year to volunteer at Optimist Club functions, including helping to raise funds for other Optimist events outside of MLS.
3. Personal Growth
MLS embraces the opportunity to make strangers into chosen family. However, for every opportunity given at Missouri Leadership Seminar focused on community, there is time or an activity focused on self-reflection. Ambassadors will be equipped with tools and prompts to reflect on their personality, goals, and background. Every year, we are thanked for bringing tissues and for bringing the shared struggles to light in a safe space. In our society that constantly preaches fear and thrives on personal insecurity, we proudly do the opposite. Even so, all of the growth is truly due to the ambassadors’ integrity and vulnerability. We hold the belief that “you get out of seminar what you put into seminar,” and as staff, we are never disappointed by the outcome.
4. Networking
As sophomores in high school, ambassadors already face a lot of hardship, adversity, and uncertainty. We seek to make ambassadors’ transitions into higher education, the workforce, and their adult lives as leaders less intimidating. Spending a (free) weekend at seminar means hundreds of things, but it also means building confidence in talking with people all of which come from different backgrounds. Walking away from seminar, ambassadors will have met peers from all over the state, gotten to know their older group leaders well, and been able to chat and begin connections with BOD (our Board of Directors), MLS alumni, and particularly our Dinner with a Pro (DWAP). Future volunteer and job opportunities, career advice, and new role models/mentors are some of the potential benefits of our ambassadors’ immersion into the MLS atmosphere. Many of our ambassadors come from small rural schools, making our experience more rare.
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