The Sophomore Conference on Real Experiences is aiming to help students make the best of their remaining years at Butler University.

The conference will begin Friday with a speech by College Mentors for Kids CEO Erin Slater. The speech will be directed towards students who might be re-examining their life choices.

Breakout sessions let students choose the topics of interest to them. The 50-minute sessions will cover topics such as internships, finding a career, real life skills and the history of Butler basketball.

David McCullough, the director of university band and a member of the Year 2 professional faculty, said choosing the session topics was a lengthy process.

“It was a combination of what the sophomore council wanted to do and what the professional faculty and staff wanted to do,” he said. “It was really a wonderful collaborative effort.”

The council wanted to choose what would hook the students in and get them talking, McCullough said.

David Woods, adjunct professor in the Eugene S. Pulliam School of Journalism and author of the book, “The Butler Way,” is among the speakers at this year’s conference.

This is the first year that a conference focused on the sophomore class will be offered, but this has been in the works for many years, in what McCullough called the sophomore initiative.

Although the response to the sophomore initiative has been somewhat slower than anticipated, 30 students have already registered for the conference, McCullough said.

While he prefers students register, McCullough said all students are welcome to attend.

Sophomore Myke Vandevoort registered for the conference hoping to gain some new skills.

“I felt like there was information that I could learn from it,” Vandevoort said. “I consider myself a leader and so I thought it was maybe something I should go to so I would be able to learn a little more about that.

“I also felt that there was some stuff like study abroad and internships where I was originally like ‘oh yeah, I know about that’ and then I sat down and really thought about it and realized that I didn’t know much so maybe I should go learn a little more.”

McCullough and the sophomore class are not certain what exactly it will be like but all are hopeful that it will benefit students.

“Every time you do a first outing, you put something out there and hope you’ve done the right things,” McCullough said. “Certainly after seeing the successes or what did not go so well the first time, we can then do something different next time.”

SCORE will be held in the Reilly Room and is open to all students.