Saint Francis Xavier School program offers students various leadership opportunities

Friday, Jan. 15, 2016

KEARNS — In October Saint Francis Xavier Middle School implemented a 36-week leadership institute as a way for the older students to act as the Council of Organization Respect and Equality (CORE) leaders. 

“We expect the eighth-grade students to step up and take the leadership role in the school, making sure that students adhere to school guidelines,” said Patrick Reeder, St. Francis Xavier School principal. “This year the class is small; we also discovered some school issues, why they were occurring and how we could take a pro-active role to make changes in the school environment and formed a CORE leadership team.” 

The CORE team consists of 19 sixth- through eighth-grade students, all of whom are on the national honor society and in student government. The team meets once a week to discuss what it means to be a leader, how to develop leadership skills, and to discuss school issues as they arise. 

The team leadership class is taught by Kevin Condas, middle school math teacher, and Lisa Rose, advancement director.

Condas and Rose are the school’s CORE advisors, said Reeder. “They have strong relationships with the students, which makes this program work; without that relationship this program would be highly ineffective,” he said. “Students look up to these two individuals as advisors who guide them rather than as administrators who tell them what to do; the students are comfortable around them.”

The goal of the leadership program is to empower the students. “We’ve noticed when we have strong student leadership, things go well,” Reeder said. “When the students have leadership skills, they can monitor themselves and the teachers are not required to police them.” 

Students aren’t necessarily born with the skills, but they can learn them, said Reeder. They can be taught expectations, guidelines and responsibilities; they develop and practice, study and achieve leadership skills.

The goal is to have the students hold themselves and their peers accountable, step up and call each other out if their behavior is out of line. If an issue is serious, then it should be reported to a teacher or the administration, Reeder said. “We expect the students to change their behavior when they are called out by a peer, a teacher or an administrator.”

As a Catholic school, “we adhere to our religious practices and begin each leadership session with the prayer the students wrote,” said Condas. “We let the students take ownership in this; we wanted them to choose what this environment should look like within the guidelines.”

A quote the student team leaders have posted on their lockers and binders is “leadership is not a position or a title, it is an action and an example.” 

“The team uses this quote as a daily reminder,” Rose said.

In a Jan. 7 session, the team discussed the different types of power and an issue that had occurred in the school. They resolved that one individual taking responsibility for consequences of the group in the incidence and acting with courage was inspirational.

The various types of power discussed include: Reward power is complying with a leader’s wishes. Referent power is based on a leader’s likability and legitimate power on a leader’s position. Informative power is based on a leader’s control. Expert power is a leader’s expertise. Connection power is who a leader knows. Coercive power is a leader’s ability to invoke fear. 

“The program has been ongoing for over two months and we quickly saw results,” said Rose.

“The leadership program has given the middle schoolers an opportunity to step up for what is right,” said Andrea Moreno a seventh-grade team member. 

Seventh-grade team member Sarah Cremer said the program has improved the school: “It is helping us to be better people.”