HaYidion: Cover of the Nurturing Leadership issue
Who will go out before them and who will come in before them, and who will bring them back so that the congregation of God will not be like sheep who have no shepherd? (Numbers 27:17)
Why do schools have student councils? What function do they serve, for the school and for its members? How should the officers be elected? These were questions the middle school students, the student council advisor, and the head of school at Heritage Academy discussed about five years ago. We decided that besides the responsibilities the student council would have for the whole school, it should also be a venue to develop student leadership. That conclusion led to the question: What are the characteristics we should be looking for in our student leaders? Although many qualities were identified and highly regarded, the group focused on four: integrity, confidence, action-orientation, and communication skills.
A threefold election framework was put in place. For two weeks prior to the election, each candidate designs, initiates, and implements a tzedakah project. These have included tutoring public school students, running Kabbalat Shabbat at the Jewish nursing home, clothing drives, and baking pies at a local soup kitchen. Each candidate, on Election Day, reports back on his/her tzedakah project.
The candidate’s speech (Why you should vote for me) includes the candidate’s vision and plans. The third component is: the “moral dilemma.” One-at-a-time, in front of the voters, each candidate is presented with the same moral dilemma. It usually revolves around a realistic situation that might involve peer pressure situations, cheating on a test, plagiarizing a research report, or Shabbat situations. The candidate responds to the moral dilemma. The voters score the candidates for the three parts of the process on a scale of 1-5. The highest scorer for each Student Council position obtains the spot.
There is great buy-in by the students into this process. They see it as more than a popularity contest; it outlines the key components of leadership and forces them to strive to achieve them. The speech highlights candidates’ communication skills and confidence, while focusing the voters upon the content and message. The tzedakah project affords a glimpse into what the candidate sees as important. How action-oriented is this candidate? Did he/she do the work of the project, or did others? The moral dilemma gives a peek into the character and integrity of the student.
Past Student Council members have gone on in high school to serve on their student councils, to be editors of school newspapers, to organize school trips to Washington, DC, to protest the Darfur situation, and take on leadership roles in their synagogues and youth groups. We believe that at Heritage Academy we have a unique way of electing our Student Council members, and that the match of the process to the objectives has given our students an opportunity to grow and explore what leadership really means. ♦
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