The Leadership Summit took place on February 23rd in the Library for the first time ever. It occurred during 4th period, Academy, and most of 5th period with over 70 participants attending.

The summit was facilitated by Leadership, however, most of the people participating in this summit were students who have positions as leaders throughout the campus. Sophomore Liv Maestre added “I learned that there’s a lot more leaders on this campus than I realized. That even people who aren’t directly in leadership positions can also be seen as leaders even if they don’t have that title.”

The goal of the summit was to bring together leaders and allow individuals to share their ideas, experiences, and questions with each other. The leaders learn from one another with the aim to impact all areas that have an influence in what they care about. This allows campo students to have a space they can feel safe and thrive in. Junior Meeran Gill said “We talked to each other about racial issues and how we can make this school more inspiring especially since its majority white people here.”

The summit started off at 8:30 AM in the library with breakfast and an opening speaker. From 9 AM to 10 AM, Dr. Lori Watson spoke to the students. At 10 AM, there was a 10 minute break. The summit started off again at 10:15 AM with small groups of mixed leaders which ended around 11 AM. After this there was feedback that was given for around 10 minutes. The panel discussion of the senior student leaders occurred from 11:15 AM to 11:45 AM. Ending with lunch in different leadership sections at 12:30 PM.

Breakfast consisted of Noah’s Bagels and lunch was pizza. Freshman Angele Tseng happily said, “There was pizza for lunch and 140 bagels for breakfast which were delicious.”

At the beginning, right after breakfast, everyone listened to Dr. Watson who spoke on how to be a leader and create an equitable space. Sophomore Colbie Freese added “Dr. Watson was a fantastic speaker and her presentation really inspired my group to brainstorm ways we could make our spaces more equitable.”

Students are brought together through nomination by their peers for the leadership qualities they have. Students could also have been nominated by a teacher or invited because they simply have a position in a club or activity. Everyone got time to talk with other students about the challenges they all face and how they want to make a change. This helped the students realize the power they had. Freese explained: “We learned about the importance of being the ‘lone nut’ or the ‘first follower’. We learned to always be conscious of how we can improve the community in our programs to welcome everyone on campus.”

These individuals have been picked because, as student leaders, they have a huge influence on the push for change on this campus. The school should reflect the students’ desires for their school and push for inclusion and belonging. Junior Avery Jules stated: “We wanted to bring together perspectives from clubs, classes, social groups, sports, and other activities so that they could all learn from each other and the different experiences they’ve had.”

Many of the students learned many important lessons from this summit that will stick with them throughout their high school experience and lead them to become better leaders to everyone. Junior Grace Allen stated, “It will definitely make me think more about my actions especially in leadership positions.”