“So for my electives I’m taking Leadership Class and CS Lewis literature… I know they’re harder classes for an elective, but why not? They help me grow!” I was blown away by this students assessment of his schedule when we talked last spring, his choice to choose challenging classes for the sake of growth over the ‘easy fun’ options. This fall, I was faced with a similar dilemma. Remembering the words of this student, I chose similarly when the opportunity came to be a participant in a leadership training program called LFIO “Leading From the Inside Out.”

We started our sessions back in August, meet with book clubs during the term, have more sessions in December, book club during term and finish in April!

At our first session one of the questions was “where are you in a place of leadership?” My natural answer was the classroom.

As term began to pick up, I realized more and more what a wise choice it was to join this cohort as the responsibilities of two new roles I’ve taken on began to take shape.

The first: Sponsoring. We have a program where a group of adults meets with their assigned class officers every other week, planning things like weekend evening ‘class nights’ and larger events like ‘sophomore restaurant,’ ‘field sales,’ ‘banquet,’ and ‘senior store.’ Each of these events brings life to campus as students of all ages and often staff participate in these student led activities. My number one role as a sponsor? Train student leaders.

The second: NHS Advisor. The National Honors Society (NHS) has chapters at high schools across America and the globe pushing students to excel in areas of academia, character, leadership and service. By its nature it is student led, but they need an adult overseeing them, and this year? That gets to be me! My number one role as the NHS Advisor? Train student leaders.

“Can we plan Mashujaa Day this year?” My student president of NHS asked at the beginning of the term.

I figured if she could get the right adult authorization, why not? And so the communication circle began. Ask the high school principal, he points us to the academic lead… he points us to the superintendent… he points us to the activities coordinator, who points us to the high school principal. Eventually, we get it all settled, and planning this all school all day event is ours!

First step? Create planning committees. We met as NHS as a whole and doled out roles. Indoor activity planning committee, outdoor planning committee, stuff getters, set up, tear down, you name it! Fifty-four students have jobs! I figure they’ll start meeting and get things done! I’ve done the empowering! WHOOP WHOOP!

Until I realize what the students are envisioning doesn’t match the vision of the communication circle mentioned above.

Until we clarify the expectations and shift around committee jobs and roles.

Until I realize the event is two and a half weeks away and none of the committees have met, and we’re closing in quick to a 5 day weekend where all the students will be off campus.

I’m starting to realize a few missing pieces to empowering student leaders.

A game plan is formed and an email sent out. Students will meet with their committees the day we get back from mid-term break to begin to iron out details. Everyone’s testing in the morning, so the afternoon is an empty space in the schedule all committees can meet. 3:00pm comes and I begin to pop back and forth between committees, attempting to guide conversations.

Schedule for the day… ceremony in the morning? Games in the afternoon? A 5k run?
Titchees… the elementary kids. Hm. Duty of care- who will be watching them? Teachers? Big/Littles (a high school elementary match up program)?
Mandatory? Optional? All things? Small groups? Whole school?

We make progress, but I leave feeling exceedingly overwhelmed. My fingers hit the keyboard and emails are flying- Jr.High Coordinator, HS Principal, Elementary Principal, Head of Student Life/Dorms, students galore!

Friday I meet with the planning committees again during 8^th period, 30 minutes at the end of the day reserved for students to be able to meet with teachers. Usually, this means getting help on homework… this day, it meant planning Mashujaa Day! I bribe them with cookies on my front porch and we plan.

We nail down schedule details for the day, delegate different activities to different students, make a list of supplies and materials needed, then the students split for sports, drama, mentoring and more.

WHEW. Saturday, I make the 80 minute drive into town and pick up water balloons, candy, and a few other random things for our fun day.

Monday I meet again, this time with the ceremony planning committee. Mashujaa day is Kenya’s independence day- a day to celebrate the hero’s who helped bring Kenya from being a British colony into an independent nation back in the 60’s. We’ve typically used this day off school to celebrate “Multi-Cultural Day” but this year, we’ll celebrate the incredible diversity on campus another time. This year, we want to celebrate and honor the Kenyan holiday intentionally.

Tuesday, we’re back at it with the planning committees! What needs to happen? Request A/V for our ceremony on alumni court. Request use of tables for water stations during the 5k. Get folks to fill water balloons. Make station signs. Bibs for the run. We need bibs. I guess print some numbers on colored paper? How about the morning activities… did we get adults willing to be at every station? Yes!

Wednesday we meet in my classroom after school and the other committees show up, filling water balloons, getting safety pins, crayons, markers, paper, toothpicks, balls, pennies, running around like crazy!

Learning moment: a leaders job is not to be the one running around. A leaders job is to be ready to tell the others what they need to get. Noted.

Thursday morning, I get to put this lesson into action, pushing my 5k coordinator to think through what he should be telling other people to do when they show up to help. Registration opens and people are coming out of the woodwork to race!

Students who want to sleep in are still in their dorms. Elementary students are signing up for the 2.5k version of the run, competitive teens and adults alike are in line for bibs, studying the hand-drawn race map. Everything is goin according to plan.

Everyone is registered and I grab my own number- why not give it a go? I occasionally run… er… jog. The race goes off without a hitch and we transition towards the Mashujaa Day Celebratory Ceremony!

Our cafeteria staff have the honor of singing the national anthem as our Kenyan students raise the Kenyan flag. Two supervisors in the cafo come up and share a little about what Mashujaa Day means to them, speaking in Swahili and Kikuyu as one of my NHS girls translates to English.

Chai and mandazis are served after the ceremony as is our 10:30am morning tradition. I’m running around again, this time not as a racer. This time I’m making sure we have everything we need at each activity station! Things seem to be in order, and I make a round again. This time, just to enjoy the fun and success of my students endeavors.

Lunch is delicious as the cafo has outdone themselves with roasted meat on the grill and freshly fried samosas, sodas for everyone.

At 2pm, we gather on upper field and my favorite part of the day begins. When I played at summer camp, we called it skittle skattle battle… now, skittles are too expensive to use here, and film canisters, what we used to carry the skittles have since gone extinct, so I just called it “A-large-scale-whole-school-campus-wide-awesome-sauce-capture-the-flag-type-game.”

And it was just that. About 300 people showed up. We painted faces and arms to clarify teams, even grades versus odd, passed out candy, established home bases and started the fun.

The end of the day came and I was exhausted. My students had crushed it. They’d taken the responsibility, stepped up the to plate, and executed an incredible holiday!

The problem with doing such a great job? Excellence begets excellence. My NHS students have already been asked to plan Multi-Cultural day. It’s not until next term, but I think we’ll start meeting soon so we’re not planning this next event in a week as that”s one oher piece I’ve learned about empowering students to be leaders.

I look back on the day with joy in my heart at the success of my students. I’m looking forward to my Decembers LFIO meetings where I get to learn myself more about being a leader and am look forward to finding ways to use those lessons to help my students become incredible leaders as they learn through our next opportunity to plan an all-school celebration.

PRAYER POINTS:

• Pray for my heart, that I continue to lean on Christ for the strength to execute all these roles well, and that when we succeed, I wouldn’t be tempted to take the credit for myself.
• Pray for my students who are learning to be leaders, and that I would be able to learn from my LFIO program effectively in such a way that I can help my students step up to the plate.
• We only have a month left in this term! This is the part of the term where fatigue begins to set in to students and staff alike and is seen in difficulty and moments of tension in the classroom, dorm, home life etc. Would you pray for good attitudes, rest and joy in the small things?
• Pray that I would learn how to rest well. I feel like when I have energy, I push 1000 miles an hour… then crash to zero. Pray the Lord would give me wisdom of what it looks like to even those numbers to somewhere more in the middle.
• Pray for our next NHS induction which happens this week- it’s tricky to be objective in deciding who is admitted and who might be a better fit for a future term’s induction, even when working with many other adults on this process.