As the semester is flying by, students are away from the comfort of home. From Sept. 20 to Sept. 22, Austin Peay State University hosted a family weekend— a weekend for families to come to campus and visit.

APSU offered many lectures and activities for students and families to get involved in. One of the lectures offered on Sept. 20 was Women Pop Icons and the Science of Leadership presented by Melissa Kates and Katerine Woods in the leadership department. 

“We try to teach leadership in a way students can understand … we use leadership in pop music and how they [pop culture women] do different things” said Woods. 

Kates and Woods showed how they combine pop culture women and leadership by giving a lecture that was about the two together using three different women in pop culture to show different types of leadership and asking trivia questions with songs such as “The Man” by Taylor Swift,  “Girls” by Beyoncé and “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish.

“They can use these examples of women who did XYZ…social norms are changing.” said Kates. 

Dr. Kates and Dr. Woods encourages students who are interested in learning more about leadership or wanting to grow a career in leadership to look into the Department of Leadership Undergraduate options which can be found https://www.apsu.edu/leadership/ .