The Leaders UNITE Conference that was scheduled for Friday February 27th has been postponed due to inclement weather (specifically, lots of snow!) We will post and inform everyone of the new conference date once it has been set. Let us know if you would like to receive emails regarding the status of the conference.
Thank you, and sorry for any inconvenience!
~Ivana
We are proud to announce that our first Leaders UNITE conference will be held on Friday February 27th from 9:30am-3:00pm. It will be in the Cary Academy lecture hall and will include schools with and without Leaders UNITE branches. The meeting will consist of three discussions, three activities from the website, and a few shorter tasks. The focus will be on what it means to be a leader, good vs. bad leadership from an external perspective, and how classroom setting helps and/or hinders leadership development. We will also work on a model of the perfect school environment for leadership development.
Please comment or contact me if you are interested in attending as an administrator or student! Lunch and transportation will be provided.
On behalf of Leaders UNITE, we would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season. As 2014 comes to a close, we just wanted to share some words of inspiration for the upcoming year.
Hi everyone! After the huge success on the YAS project, we have lots more to come in December and January! Here’s some things to look forward to:
We are very excited for all of the upcoming projects! We hope you all will get involved and bringing positivity to our community!
Our Thanksgiving YAS project was a success! We had at least seven people share the YAS status, and over 90 YAS posts within the few days the project was active. Good job to everyone who posted a YAS status! We will do another round of YAS near the last week of December.
For everyone who missed it, YAS (You are Special) was a Leaders UNITE social media movement where people posted status on Facebook and posted on Instagram. Whenever someone ‘liked” the respective post, they would get a personalized message on their wall saying why they are special and important. People could “share” the status and post it as their own to continue the cycle to another group of people. On Thanksgiving day, Ivana and Julia posted multiple YAS messages on people’s walls randomly- whether they knew about the tradition or not! It was a great way to spread the holiday cheer!
In honor of Thanksgiving week, Leaders UNITE is launching our first YAS week. YAS stands for “You are Special.” This project is similar to Compliment Cards, but it is an online version. Ivana and Julia are posting facebook statuses about YAS. If you like the status, they will post a nice message on your facebook wall. They will do this if you like their status, but they will also be posting randomly on people’s walls. The message will start off, “YAS because…” Hopefully, once you receive the message, you will post your own status about YAS. We hope this really kicks off, and that this will be the first of many YAS opportunities.
I could not believe how sweet the children were! They were all very enthusiastic to try my activities and didn’t complain one bit when a strange, relatively tall teenager entered the room to give directions. As they walked into the room, the students proudly announced their names and asked me questions ranging from my name to my school. They were all so sweet!
There were a few instances that stuck out to me in my first session with these students, but this one stuck with me the most. The first activity I did with the younger (preschool-kindergarten) students was “Create Your Own Superhero.” I gave each group of two a sheet of paper. While some groups easily shared and created the superhero together, others had difficulty agreeing on a superhero and wouldn’t even share the paper with one another. I went up to one group of girls. One girl wanted to make a superhero like Wonder Woman and the other girl wanted to make a superhero like Elsa. They had each drawn their own superhero on the page. I explained to them that the activity was supposed to be about teamwork, and that they were supposed to create one superhero together. They were still reluctant. I asked each of them what they liked about their respective superhero and got an array of responses ranging from the superpowers to the clothing. I paused and then asked, “Why don’t you combine both of the superheroes-and everything you like about them- together to make a mega superhero!” The girls gasped with fascination and began their new project. As the end of the project, I was proud to return to the table and see a combined super hero with, “Wonder Woman combined with Elsa” written on the top of the page.
After much planning and rescheduling, yesterday was the launch of Leaders UNITE at Chesterbrook Academy preschool and elementary school. The club took place during the afterschool program, and the students were split into older (1st-5th grades) and younger (preschool-kindergarten) sections each with approximately 17 students. The students enjoyed acting, drawing, and learning about teamwork. Ivana’s reflections from the first session will be posted in the next blog entry. Stay tuned!
Last night, Ivana spoke to over 30 teens about Leaders UNITE. After having Mr. Korey Sullivan (one of adults in charge of the council) come and speak to the Cary Academy branch of Leaders UNITE, Ivana was excited to return the favor. The members of the Cary Teen Council listened eagerly as she discussed the principles of the club and its fun activities. Hopefully, some of these students will start Leaders UNITE at their own schools. They are doing great things!
Q: How can I start Leaders UNITE at my school?
A. It’s very easy! Just talk to a teacher or counselor at your school and see what time of day you can do this club. Some schools have club time, so try to start this club during that time. If your school doesn’t have club time, try to start this club before or after school. Or even in a homeroom period. Ask you teacher to see what time works best. Find a faculty member who is willing to facilitate club time, and then you’ll be set! The 2014-2015 schedule is on the website, but feel free to add or eliminate activities based on the amount of club time you have. If you want to incorporate the club in another way feel free to email leadersuniteclub@gmail.com for suggestions. Even if everything is clear with the schedule, we still recommend that you email Leaders UNITE so that you can get updates about events in the area.
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Q. How do I receive information and/or attend state-wide Leaders UNITE events?
A. To receive information about club-wide conferences, volunteer events, and guest speakers, email leadersuniteclub@gmail.com to be added to the email list. If you are starting the club at your school, I recommend doing this, so you can receive information easily.
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Q. How do I respond to the discussion posts on the Leaders UNITE website?
A. We strongly recommend each branch of the club to share their insights on discussion questions in the form of a comment on the discussion post. In order to comment on the post, you must create a WordPress account (www.wordpress.com). Once you are logged in, you can go to the Leaders UNITE website and click “comment” under the specific post. We hope this section allows schools to gain different perspectives on major issues regarding leadership.
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Q. Where is the 2014-2015 schedule and how do I use it?
A. The schedule is posted under the tab “2014-2015 Schedule.” The schedule will open in PowerPoint and goes vertically. For example, you start with all of the activities, discussion questions, etc. that are vertically under “Understanding.” Once your group has completed those, then you move on to “Nourishing,” etc. The activities and discussion prompts are all in quotation marks and therefore correspond to species posts under the “Activities” and “Discussion Questions” pages. If your club has limited time and needs to cut activities and discussion questions, feel free to do so. However, the activities/discussions in bold font are the ones that your club should not cut from the schedule.
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Q. Is there an age requirement for students in the club?
A. No, students of any age group can start this club at their school. However, under the activity section, there are different tabs for elementary, middle, and high schools, so it is important to use the different tabs when doing activities for the club. We believe that you are never too young to learn how to be a leader, so we believe that students of any age can participate in this club.
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Q. Currently, how many branches of Leaders UNITE are there?
A. There are 15 branches of the club in North Carolina that we know of. However, we have been in contact with 6 other schools in the state, 2 county-wide Teen Councils, 1 school in Maryland, a school in Argentina, and a school in Singapore. There are other branches that we have heard of, but they have not provided contact information to Leaders UNITE, so we are unsure of further information. We hope to continue spreading this club to other schools!
Leaders UNITE 