This past summer, the Leadership Academy hosted a Junior and Senior retreat for upperclassmen Leadership members.

In the senior retreat, the main focus was on mission statements where the seniors talked about who they are as a person, what they believe in, and the type of person they want to become.

“We went through a process for making that vision a reality. A sort of weekly routine to get closer to that mission statement each week,” Leadership Academy supervisor Principal Steve Swaggerty said. After their retreat, they walked out with those statements in hand.

In the junior retreat, the juniors did something different than what the seniors participated in. Leadership Academy juniors did several activities that focused on leadership principles through reactions to intense situations.

Some activities included survival games such as an earthquake situation. Here, students were timed to make quick and vital choices that really exposed their personality based on rapid judgments and evaluations of their predicament. Most activities were accomplished in groups. Their primary goal was to see who worked together the best.

“It forced us to work together as a team to get the job done. We were able to see different people’s points of view which really helped open up our minds to new thoughts and opinions,” said junior Katie Kopan.

Afterward, as a group, the students talked through their strengths and weaknesses to aid them in improvements for team work.

In a future, Mr. Swaggerty hopes that students take advantage of these opportunities to help them with real life situations. “You learn from every experience you have. You also learn from people around you. I hope that these intense situations gave them a chance to learn a couple lessons they can take with them for college and the rest of their lives,” Mr. Swaggerty said.    

Andrea Rodriguez, Staff Writer