National Society of Leadership and Success unlocks student potential

The National Society of Leadership and Success, founded in 2001, aims to help students discover their leadership potential. 

Utah State University started its NSLS chapter in 2016, and it is led by Jose Sandoval, who took office as president at the end of 2024. He has been involved with NSLS since 2023, originally as a member.

“The chapter has been here on campus since 2016, but I don’t know what happened between 2016 to when I took office because I’ve had to build everything from scratch,” Sandoval said. “It was a bit of a challenge, especially finding an adviser.” 

Sandoval hopes to provide more visibility to the chapter itself and address the disconnect between students who are nominated and students who complete the entire process.

“To have 1,000-something students and only 600 that actually made it through the whole program — there had to be some type of challenge that kind of interfered with people not completing,” Sandoval said. 

Students are invited to join the honor society based on criteria involving GPA. They then undergo a four-step induction process to become a member.

In the first step, students are given an introduction to the history of the NSLS and expectations of the program. The second step focuses on helping students understand their personal leadership style and how to use it when working with a team.

“My intent is to create a workshop and develop something that’s going to actually get students to think, ‘Okay, let me actually understand myself respectively and how I can manage that aspect of myself as a leader and continue to develop myself and those skills,’” Sandoval said.

The third step is a broadcast of guest speakers such as public figures who demonstrate leadership qualities, followed by the final step that focuses on goal setting.

“The fourth step is what we call ‘success networking teams,’” Sandoval said. “It’s basically setting goals for about three weeks where you meet with this specific group that’s helping you get through those steps of completing a goal that you had in mind.”

Goal setting is a foundational aspect of NSLS membership and a large part of the induction process. Students can set goals to meet their personal needs and don’t have to be professional or academic-oriented. 

“My vision is to provide resources to students and get them involved,” Sandoval said. “Provide them with opportunities to step into that relationship — doing things that are going to make a difference.”

Jet Hunter is a junior studying accounting. He heard about NSLS through an email invitation.

“It initially piqued my interest because I’d never gotten an email about a club or an organization before, and so I checked it out, and I realized how big it was in other areas,” Hunter said.

Hunter is currently going through the induction process and has found it to be a valuable experience.

“The reason that I’ve stuck with it so far is because it’s actually taught me a lot about myself and allowed me to see some of the stuff that I want to do and try to strive to be a better version of myself,” Hunter said. “It’s just made me realize a bit more of who I am and what I want.”

After all four induction steps are completed, there is an induction ceremony where students are presented with a certificate of completion.

“Once you get inducted, that’s when the door kind of opens,” Sandoval said. “Now you have all these resources available to you because you completed the initial program during the initial process.”

These resources include advanced leadership programs, community service opportunities, trips abroad and scholarships.