Elaine Loft, Staff Writer
Over 70 elected and non-elected student leaders attended the Derryfield Student Leadership Summit on Wednesday, August 27. The theme was, “Reaching across divides: leading with awareness, inclusivity and positivity to create a trusting culture.” Dr. Reina Stimpson, Director of Student Leadership, orchestrated the event. The leadership groups included, Student Council, Class Councils, Discipline Committee, Exploration leaders, athletic captains, Admission Ambassadors and affinity group leaders.
The Summit explored best practices around building trusting, inclusive groups, and gave participants the opportunity to practice skills around leadership. It also allowed time for groups to both plan, and set goals. At the end of the session, groups shared their plans, and unified around the important strategic initiative of peer leadership.
In a segment addressing the issue of building trust, Stimpson asked the participants to think of a time when trust was broken–when a team lost its sense of cohesion. She asked the groups to make a list of what builds trust, and what erodes trust.
Under the “trust building” category, suggestions included: positivity, communication, respect, honesty, patience, sympathy and kindness. In terms of what erodes trust, the teams called out: selfishness, manipulation, gatekeeping, tardiness, immaturity, and not enough follow through.
The end goal of the exercises executed throughout the day-long summit was to set norms for all factions of the student leadership program.
