Smiles are evident all around the room when the seniors walk into the Freshman Campus for their weekly visit. Whether the seniors were helping out during pride camp or their weekly 35 minutes with their freshman AIM. A new class this year, Leadership in Action has the job of bridging the gap between the two campuses and making new connections. 

Moving campuses has been a big transition for all classes, but this will greatly affect this year’s freshman. Without being at the same campus it is harder for students to find good leaders, and role models within their own campus. 

Senior Arianna Vallianatos, who takes Leadership in Action, states, “I think it will leave a positive impact on the freshman because they can see the best and brightest of the senior class as their role models and someone to look up to.”

Leadership in Action not only has an impact on the freshman, but it has just as much of an impact on the Seniors in the class. Building connections is not only for the freshman but for the seniors as well.  

Being in Leadership in Action has made it easier for Vallianatos to connect with the Freshman, especially because it is such a pivotal time in their lives. “I enjoy getting to know each of them and it is really rewarding to me to have them come to me for help or just to talk,” she states. 

This new class makes way for seniors like Ty Linker to become more than just a role model for the freshman. It allows him to not only help freshman plan for this year, but the years coming after high school. “After we establish their end goal I ask them what they think they can do to achieve those goals. Then we work together and make a small plan,” Linker states. 

Apart from anything else Leadership In Action is about learning. This class also provides room for the teacher of Leadership In Action, John Lunkenheimer, to learn and grow with this new program as well as watching the seniors develop their leadership skills even further.

Lunkenheimer states, “Sometimes we tell kids that they’re leaders, and they don’t know what that means, or they don’t know how to use those skills or strengthen those skills. I think that part is important.”

New classes like Leadership in Action make way for a new way of learning for everyone involved. Whether it be freshman, seniors, or the teachers, taking on a new class comes with it’s rough spots, but the leaders and students can become ready to take on whatever comes their way.