Culture is going to change. It is a fact of life, a good but also terrifying truth. There are times when the change must be forced, or even just given room in order to happen.

Some administrators, teachers, and students will be creating room for this growth in the coming months in order to encourage more students to become leaders in the SHS community. These new leaders, fueled by the program The Leader in Me will in turn impact the culture of SHS and the wider community as these leaders use their new skills in communication.

“We want continue to grow not only academically…but to also grow in the area of our culture and our community with the leadership we have and bringing that leadership out in everyone,” said Dr. Yejide Mack, assistant principal.

Having student-lead environments, and more motivation to reach out to other students or to take on more projects will impact the students within SHS when this rolls out in the coming years.

“[The program talks about] ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’…and how to have conversations that not only help you and help the other person but how to help the organization and that was really important to me,” Mack said.

However, there is always an emphasis on leadership in any setting, and SHS, through The Leader in Me will try to bring that out in all students in all settings.

Growing leadership is not going to wait until the program takes hold, so teams are already meeting to discuss how to make the program as effective as it can be.

This change will come through the program The Leader in Me, which will impact Aviator bells in the coming years. Students will be leading the instruction as teachers help facilitate.

“A huge piece of this program is [explaining] what this is and this is how it affects you personally…and this is how it looks globally,” Mack said.

As high school communities directly impact the high school itself, high schools also can help their community’s culture as well. The Leader in Me focuses on making all students accountable for their own growth and development through learning about how to be a leader. These skills or the use of them is not contained inside of a school but rather will be the purpose to be carried throughout life.

“We will continue to monitor [the progress] mostly using surveys…that is how we determine what we are going to look at as a school community in the areas we need to grow and those are the things we will tackle,” Mack said.

The Student-Lead team and Staff Launch team have already been created to develop what SHS needs to grow in and how the program will be designed to facilitate this growth in all students.