Leadership

List of 2 items.

• Student Leadership in the Middle School

  One of the goals in building a strong community in the Middle School is to promote leadership in the student body. For the past decade, Head of Middle School Susie McGee and the faculty have been designing and refining a comprehensive leadership training program to engage and educate students about the importance of Rivers’ core principles of perseverance and integrity. The program begins the first week of school and extends throughout the school year.
  
  Each school year opens with Leadership Week, which includes faculty­taught workshops on a variety of topics such as public speaking, sportsmanship, and diversity. Eighth­grade peer mentors who have already been through the program partner with teachers in workshops and are responsible for leading their own workshops that they brainstorm during their Orientation Day at Nonesuch Camp.
  
  The week’s culminating activity is the Leadership Presentation, where students are encouraged to think critically about their roles in the Rivers community and to recognize that leadership manifests itself in a variety of forms. Each exhibit /activity focuses on a specific behavior or character trait essential to leadership and community. The Presentations have covered a range of topics like diversity, heroes and role models, competitive citizenship, service, and healthy choices. Topics vary from year to year as eighth graders plan and implement the culminating presentations.
  
  Leadership Week is paired with “leadership days” later in the year that have a specific focus and are intended to highlight the exploratory nature of learning and leadership in the classroom. Veterans’ Day is spent, for example, examining qualities of leadership such as heroes, gratitude, service, and courage.
  
  “It’s a great way for kids to get to know each other and to make the point that the issue of leadership is important to the Rivers community,” says McGee. “It’s vital to explore these core principles that are woven into the fabric of the culture here at Rivers. We want them to understand that how they are and act is an ongoing choice and that their actions affect others.”
  
  In a chapter contributed by McGee for a book on student leadership published in 2010 by the CSEE (Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education), she wrote, “Students typically see leadership as something separate from themselves; thus a huge goal for us...is to shift this perspective and invite students to consider the notion of leading with one’s self. We work to take students’ definitions of what makes a leader and place it for them in a new context—how they can be leaders everyday. We ask them to note strengths and qualities in themselves and then identify situations in their daily school lives where they can be deliberate in exercising these qualities. While there are definitely opportunities for students to take on the traditional leadership roles, what’s more important is revealing opportunities in and out of the classroom where students can step into leadership.
  
  “There is no formula. Leadership skills have to be directly taught, honed and practiced. Our collaborative program is helping to create a stronger middle school in establishing an environment more conducive to trust and risk­taking. By opening themselves to notions of their own leadership students are tapping into qualities and strengths and defining themselves in new ways. In the words of a seventh grader, ‘You can be a leader anywhere at any time of day.’”

• Student Leadership in the Upper School

  The leadership initiative in the Upper School was spurred largely by Upper School Dean of Students and Grade 9 Dean Samantha Brennan’s experience in the summer of 2006 at a conference at the Gardner Carney Leadership Institute in Colorado. During the conference speakers presented research from developmental psychology to highlight how children’s growth affects their ability to receive feedback and display leadership.
  
  Brennan was convinced that leadership can manifest itself in numerous forms, all equally valid and important. She was also convinced that leadership can be taught by deliberately seizing “teachable moments” and teaching students a defined set of leadership skills.
  
  “A group of individuals doesn’t have to just be one ‘leader’ and a bunch of ‘followers,’” she says. “With our leadership initiative, I hope students are able to think to themselves, “I’m not the captain of a team, but I can still help create a positive school environment.’”
  
  In 2009, a faculty leadership committee unveiled its definition of leadership as “being your best self, and positively influencing others,” and initiated a series of workshops with teachers on how to give effective feedback in a variety of situations.
  
  Currently student leaders of clubs and teams are invited to attend an annual retreat that specializes in analyzing personal strengths and weaknesses, setting goals, giving effective feedback, and other topics. Discussion groups focus on the different types of student leaders in a community – not just the people who lead by speaking, but quieter individuals who lead by example.
  
  “The goal of our leadership program is to give students a greater capacity for and understanding of leadership in all of its many forms, as part of a concerted effort to teach students about character,” says Brennan. “We want to continue to support students so that they can help make Rivers the best that it can be.”
  
  Rivers continues to send teachers to the gcLi conferences. Brennan and fellow teacher Kate Wade have also been invited to be presenters at the national conferences.