Leadership Academy Unites Districts, Drake University
Students from Callanan and Harding middle schools in Des Moines and Waukee and South middle schools in Waukee gather for a unique 7th grade Leadership Academy, co-sponsored by Drake University.
Des Moines Public Schools has teamed up with the Waukee school district and Drake University’s Robert D. and Billie Ray Center for a first-of-its kind 7th grade Leadership Academy.
The team of 42 students from Des Moines’ Callanan and Harding middle schools and Waukee South and Waukee Middle School were chosen mostly through teacher recommendations.
“They weren’t necessarily the loudest students,” said Callanan principal Dawn Stahly. “They’re mostly the quiet leaders who have the potential to influence others and lead in their schools and community.”
The academy’s first meeting in November in Waukee focused on leading in the community. This month saw the students return with ideas for improvement in their own schools, following meetings with students and administrators at their home schools. The idea was to collaborate with their new leadership academy friends and come up with a plan to solve their home school’s challenges — from using social media appropriately to disruptive students.
“We’re empowering kids to think about their own problems, and how they can solve them and be advocates for themselves and others,” said Stahly.
Thirteen-year-old Jordan Bohn-Wright, of Callanan Middle School, said the biggest challenge at her school is too much chaos in the hallway ending in horseplay.
“Occasionally, students just trying to get to their classes get pushed around,” she said. “We’re considering limiting the minutes between classes and placing monitors in the hallways.”
Bohn-Wright doesn’t know for sure why she was selected by teachers for the program, but when asked, said it might be that she tries to be respectful and helpful in class.
“I’m also calm and collected,” she said.
Despite common leadership skills and school challenges, the students from the city and the suburb are learning there are differences between them, too. Harding Principal Joy Lindquist led a tour of Harding classrooms, telling the future leaders to note how the students and classrooms were alike and different from their home schools. She gave the suburban students a heads up that, unlike the relatively new buildings in Waukee, Harding was built long before the students’ parents were born, and the furniture, which had been replaced many times throughout the years, is not ideal.
“This is an old building with many upgrades and furniture that will be replaced soon,” Lindquist explained. “But furniture doesn’t make schools, we make schools, right?”
