Teen Leadership is an elective course in which students learn leadership skills and life lessons applicable inside and outside of the classroom. In Teen Leadership 2, students go off campus to volunteer at elementary schools and more. 

In order to teach students these skills and give them practice in leading a group, teacher and wrestling coach Jason Thurston has the students lead and teach class. The class is divided into four groups and each group teaches a different pair of traits.

“The ability to lead your classmates I think is going to be a big thing that will help whenever you go to the other organizations,” Thurston said. “They’re all going to be your peers as well, so it kind of felt like the perfect environment to be able to practice, but also learn at the same time.”

While students usually get annoyed or bored by class presentations, students in this class saw the value in this project.

“It’s always been said that you’re not going to be a leader if you don’t have followers,” senior Rachel Rhoades said. “So just learning how to talk to people and how to get their attention and make them want to listen is one of the things that we worked on.”

It was also an opportunity for students to get a taste of what teachers go through.

“I really enjoyed it especially since I’ve wanted to be a teacher ever since I was 5,” Rhoades said. “Just being able to do that and to learn the things you need to do and don’t need to do as a teacher was really cool.”

According to Thurston, a lot of parallels can be drawn between teaching and teen leadership.

“One, you can relate to the people up front and try to make sure you get the lesson,” Thurston said. “But also even with teachers you can be in your other classes and kind of realize what it feels like to teach up front.”

It also helps with public speaking and controlling a group.

“I feel like it applies to Teen Leadership in the way that it helps you with your social skills it helps you learn the responsible way to interact with people,” sophomore Dorothy Chambers said.

Not only are the students responsible for teaching their lessons, they have to fully learn and understand everything all the other groups teach as well, as they all explore the necessary leadership skills.

“These things are different skills you have to have yourself in order to be able to lead,” Thurston said. “I think like if you’re not empathetic or you don’t have self motivation and you don’t have some of these other things, self awareness, self control, you can’t really lead anybody. So, not only are you practicing it while you’re teaching the words but you’re also learning the words that I think every leader has to have.”