Leadership day challenges TJ’s Student Council and selected students to step up and lead through example.
Photo courtesy of TJ Yearbook
On November 19, 2010 the second annual Leadership Day conference was held at Lincoln High School with schools from all over the metro-area invited to participate in workshops and activities designed to strengthen students’ leadership skills.
TJ’s Student Council participated – along with a number of other students who were chosen to attend – in the all day conference in the hopes of gaining skills to help them become leaders within the school, and of learning skills that would benefit them in real life situations, such as in a job interview. “Leadership day was a day for different schools’ student councils to come together and become stronger leaders within their schools. It was all about making first impressions and how we can be the leaders and the best ways to do that,” said TJ Junior Class President Maddi Doro.
Participants in Leadership Day engaged in several different workshops that were constructed to teach students new ways to meet people and the best ways to make a good first impression. One workshop in particular, Pinky Partners, was aimed at creating the feeling of rejection in each participant to help strengthen his or her confidence, even when facing rejection. Participants were to walk around the gym and ask other participants to be their pinky partner. “I enjoyed the beginning of the day when we practiced shaking hands, and played the pinky partner game. We had to go around the gym and ask people to be our pinky partner. In order to accept a pinky partner you had to reject three others and be rejected three times yourself. I liked the activity because it was unusual and it allowed us to meet a lot of new kids from other schools,” said Doro.
Another workshop was designed to teach students to learn how to shake hands when first meeting someone. Many were surprised how large of an impact the handshake has on a first impression. “The handshake game was interesting because you don’t usually think of how to shake someone’s hand. That’s something you learn at an early age and think you know how to do it. It was sort of fascinating to re-learn the skill and see how much it truly impacts your impression on the person you’re meeting,” said Doro.
Leadership Day for TJ’s StuCo is the first outing taken as a whole since the 2008-2009 school year. They attended the conference in hopes of it impacting StuCo in positive ways and getting students excited about being a part of student government at TJ. “I have high hopes for how this conference will impact TJ and Student Council. I think this will first get more kids to join StuCo because a lot of the kids who came aren’t actually in Student Council, and I think this has let a lot of us realize how much we can do if we really want to do it,” said Doro.
Leadership Day allowed StuCo to gain a few new members and get students more interested in becoming part of their school environment. “After this conference it really showed me that there are a lot of students in TJ who want to help make TJ a better school for everyone. We were able to recruit new members which is great for StuCo, and our student council family is growing! Student council is really important to me, and to see that there are other people who care about it as much as I do really makes me happy,” said All School President Nicole Blake.
Student Council hopes to have the opportunity to go again next year and bring new students and new incoming freshmen. “It was a life changing experience that opened my eyes to a lot of new things. The whole experience was amazing and just a lot of fun. Not only do you get to meet new people and play games that improve your leadership skills, but many of us – including myself – have a greater appreciation for our school, and showed me how to be a leader in all sorts of ways. I hope next year Student Council gets to enjoy the same experience,” said Blake.
