Students take on leadership (published in the Michigan City News Dispatch on 3 May 2006)
Marly Tristano - La Lumiere
Leadership is a quality many of us exhibit, whether it's taking control in an emergency or leading a group project.
This year at La Lumiere, a new leadership program was implemented as a requirement for all sophomores and juniors. The class focuses on building bonds, teamwork and exploring individual ability.
When I sat down with teacher Rachael Bork to discuss the importance of teaching a leadership class to high school students, she said she believes the main focus is exploration.
"Leadership is about taking responsibility in the community," she said.
Bork went on to describe how many teenagers are natural leaders, but become afraid of their own abilities. The class is supposed to bring out the limitations of our abilities, and to teach us to work with the strengths each of us possesses.
One of the key aspects to the leadership curriculum is a class project. The leadership seminar at La Lumiere is in two sections - one for sophomores and one for juniors. Each has been working on a project for the past semester that can be beneficial to the community. Classes went through the dirty work of logistics, announced it to the school and then implemented their ideas.
The junior leadership project took place two weeks ago on Earth Day. The junior class issued a plea to the campus to take the gorgeous Saturday to help with campus beautification. This meant planting flowers, raking, cleaning the campus and implementing a classroom recycling program.
Mary Ruble, a member of the leadership class, was a part of every step of the process.
"We're landscaping, cleaning and starting a recycling program. We're trying to improve the campus physically and environmentally."
The sophomore leadership project takes La Lumiere way off campus and into cancer awareness. The class decided to dedicate themselves to Relay for Life, a charity walk meant to raise money for cancer research.
Margaux Freidman, a member of the project, is deeply committed to the cause. "We're doing a cancer walk this fall that is going to have not only people from our school, but people from our community."
To raise money, the class held a cancer spirit week last week. Each day students were allowed, for a small fee, to dress in the color of a certain cancer. Colors included, brown, gray, black, blue, red, purple and pink, highlighting awareness in everything from breast cancer to colon cancer. Not only did it help out the leadership project, but it offered students a nice break from uniforms.
"Leadership is doing the right things for our campus," said Victoria Wedzina. "It's helping not only us, but the community."
Marly Tristano, a junior at La Lumiere, is a student columnist for The News-Dispatch. Views expressed are the writer's, not the school's or the newspaper's.
