On the morning of Sat. August 12th, Dean of Students Mr. Kevin Jacobsen and Social Studies department chair and NHS advisor Ms. Sara Misselhorn led a Senior Leadership workshop in the DLC.
The event was created to introduce the Seniors to their responsibilities as leaders for this upcoming school year.
“I think the workshop, overall, went really well. It was a starting point for conversations that we want to have with seniors who go through Benjamin,” said Mr. Jacobsen. “We had students there who kind of self-identified as leaders, and having those students who wanted more of a leadership role in the class helps us have that first conversation.”
Mr. Jacobsen expected about 20 to 40 students to attend the Senior Leadership Workshop; ultimately, about twenty showed up.
“The turnout wasn’t a surprise, because I was aware of the fact that a lot of students had prior commitments since it was the last Saturday of summer break. But I’m definitely pleased with the number of students who actually showed up,” explained Mr. Jacobsen.
Senior Andrew Lappin attended the workshop and was pleasantly surprised by how much he learned.
“When I first signed up, I was expecting to get lectured for three hours, but it was actually pretty interesting to hear everyone else’s thoughts about leadership,” shared Lappin. “I learned a lot about being a leader and being able to work in groups. My favorite part was when we wrote down our character strengths on notecards.”
Mr. Jacobsen shared what he hopes the seniors took away from the Senior Leadership workshop.
“I think they now have a better understanding of the sense of responsibility that comes with being seniors and also being able to shape the school in a very real, tangible way as the year goes on,” said Mr. Jacobsen.
These leadership skills are already being exercised by the Seniors in the first weeks of school. For example, Friday’s pep rally was primarily run by Seniors, and they were able to implement some of their own ideas to make the assembly enjoyable.
“The pep rally was run by pretty much all seniors. I really wanted to implement all different types of students–not just sports and not just some clubs–but everyone,” said Student Council President and Senior Maggie Smith. “That’s why I had all the varsity sports captains and some of the most important clubs speak to the school.”
“I think seeing that (leadership at the pep rally) just shows how great this school year can be if we continue in this direction,” explained Mr. Jacobsen proudly. “They will dictate how this school year will go, so it was really great to see them take those steps today.”
Overall, the Senior Leadership Workshop seems to be a great success early on and it should have an important role in defining the rest of the school year.
