Racing hearts and queasy, churning stomachs envelop students from schools across Region Eight as they prepare to share their leadership lessons with their peers. On Jan. 15, 2025, Texas High’s Leader-In-Me students traveled to Mount Pleasant for the Region Eight Leadership Conference.
“The Region Eight Conference was [an event] where high school students came together and learned more about what leadership truly is through the eyes of people who look just like them,” junior Angel Venable said. “Some of us [in] Leader-In-Me were asked to present breakout sessions to [other] students to share our experiences and knowledge as leaders.”
Over the course of the program, Leader-In-Me students learned what leadership means to them and how it shaped them into a position where they could share their experiences in a motivational way.
“[Several of our students] were selected to present their sessions to Region Eight,” Leader-In-Me sponsor Britni Huggins said. “The region coordinator also reached out and specifically requested Angel to be selected as the keynote speaker to kick off the event.”
Speakers had the opportunity to work in groups or solo on the path to defining leadership. Often, seniors led the groups, and underclassmen supported them and provided personal examples.
“For our presentation, we demonstrated leadership by going over the definition of what a leader [is],” senior Jayden Manley said. “We had each group in our session participate in a game where there was one leader of the group and they had to guide [someone] to draw an image on their own.”
From hands-on activities to examples of newly carried-out concepts, Texas High students’ preparation in composing the perfect display to spell out leadership is nothing short of impressive.
“I [talked about] restorative justice, it’s a new thing we’re implementing. [Simply put], it’s a substitute for alternative placement,” senior Trace Johnson said. “Students would watch lessons, do character training, and behavior lessons that show why [their actions] were wrong and help you to understand the process of what you did [to lead to] a change in behavior and mindset.”
Often multi-directional, the impact of words affects others deeper than it might seem, influencing both the audience and the speaker.
“[My] speech gave me an outlook on my impact on other students and how much my voice truly matters,” Venable said. “[I saw growth in myself through] being able to share my story with students who look just like me gave me comfort. [When] I finished and students started walking up to me to express themselves warmed my heart. I want everyone to know they are cherished and seen.”