In Leaders UNITE two weeks ago, the students conducted an activity relating to the Leaders UNITE positivity movement, YAS (You are Special). In this activity, students learned that it is important for a leader to encourage his/her teammates, get to know his/her teammates’ strengths, and to make his/her teammates feel happy.

To emphasize this, we began Leaders UNITE with a discussion, where we introduced the students to the word “compliment.” I first explained what a compliment is. I then gave a few of the students compliments, and asked them how they felt afterwards. They all said that they felt very happy! This was another point we emphasized during our discussion- that saying something nice to someone can make them feel very happy.

After our discussion, we conducted an activity called Valentine’s Day YAS. In this activity, students had to select a partner and think of one thing they like about that person. They then had to exchange compliments with their partner, and make a Valentine’s Day card for their partner using the compliment they wrote down. I was very impressed with the students thinking of authentic compliments. They also did a great job with their Valentine’s Day cards for their partners. I even saw some of the students ask their partner, “Do you like this color?” or, “What kinds of pictures do you like?” when deciding what to put on the card for their partner.

It was so great to see all of the students smiling and happy when they received cards from their friends!