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Collegiate 7th Graders Participate in Leadership Program

9/28/2016

This week, in an interactive, informal way to reinforce Collegiate School’s core values — community, respect, honor, excellence and love of learning — focus on teambuilding and develop dynamic leaders, 7th Graders gathered at the Robins Campus for Community, Challenges and Leadership.

The CCL program, begun more than 20 years ago, lays the foundation for 7th Grade advisory work and sets the stage for Connect Richmond, the 7th Grade community service project through which the students research, visit and assess the needs of a community organization and then address how those needs can be fulfilled.

Twelve seniors, chosen for their proven leadership skills, and a dozen 7th Grade faculty members, helped facilitate each day’s activities. The 7th Grade boys participated on Monday; 7th Grade girls on Wednesday.

Each group began with individual games where one clear winner emerged, and team games where everyone won — then moved on to discussions, led by the seniors, about values and tough choices the 7th Graders may be faced with in certain situations.

“We hope they learn something about the people in their group and take what they’ve learned back to school and back to our community,” said Sally Chambers, Middle School Counselor, who spearheads the program.

Suzanne Fleming, Collegiate’s Director of Service Learning and Civic Engagement, also addressed the students and spoke about having empathy for others and trying to see things from different perspectives.

“Listen to each other,” she said, “because what someone needs may actually be different from what you think they need.”

CCL Goals

Lay the groundwork for the school year, emphasizing making choices based on commonly-shared Collegiate community values.
Help each person recognize that he or she has something to contribute to the well-being of the Collegiate community.
Identify and explore situations in which 7th Grade students feel challenged to make healthy choices within the School community and with their friends.
Provide opportunities for leadership in working with a team.
Build cohesiveness within each student’s Advisory group.
Set the stage for Connect Richmond, the 7th Grade community service program.

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