This weekend at Stanford University, twenty of the nation’s top Objectivist student club leaders will unite for an intense day of leadership training to develop their skills as communicators of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. The Undercurrent, which is organizing the seminar, is dedicated to encouraging students to engage in activism that promotes Ayn Rand’s ideas on college campuses.
The Undercurrent’s first leadership seminar will feature lectures focused on basic club development, maintaining club longevity, marketing strategy, and communicating philosophical ideas. Speakers include TU principals and former club leaders, including a number of Bay Area entrepreneurs such as Jason Crawford and Jared Seehafer. Newly appointed Director of Development Brittney Rivera, who is coordinating the event, will also speak. Yaron Brook, President and Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute, will deliver online an exclusive capstone talk to the attendees.
The TULS event is part of The Undercurrrent’s Fall 2013 campaign, which aims to promote Ayn Rand’s morality of rational self-interest. In addition to providing leadership training to students, the leadership seminar will give Objectivist club leaders the chance to play an active role in planning and promoting activism events surrounding another Stanford-hosted campaign event, a lecture by Onkar Ghate, Senior Fellow and President of Intellectual Leadership at the Ayn Rand Institute, to be delivered on Thursday, October 24th.
In addition to supporting the Stanford campaign event, TULS students will learn how to market the event on their own campus with the goal of hosting live viewing parties, turning a traditionally local lecture into a nationwide phenomena. Aside from Stanford, participating schools include UT Austin, Loyola Chicago, UW-Madison, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Arizona and Temple University.
Dr. Ghate’s lecture, “Rethinking Selfishness: Ayn Rand’s New Conception of Egoism” will explore what makes Ayn Rand’s idea of self-interest distinctive, explaining why it might serve as a source of unconventional but inspiring moral guidance. The talk and the leadership seminar are co-sponsored by The Undercurrent and the Ayn Rand Institute.
Participating students have been networking in a private Facebook group for weeks now, and are increasingly enthusiastic to participate in the upcoming event. A conference of Ayn Rand-oriented student activists on this scale is unprecedented. The Undercurrent sees encouraging students to build and take part in a growing activist network as imperative to the success of the Objectivist movement. Thanks to the support received from TU’s campaign fundraiser, a thriving student network is closer to becoming a reality. The Undercurrent hopes to continue creating exciting projects in which young activists can participate in the explosion of visibility of Ayn Rand’s ideas on campus.