MASA Feature “If you want to be a leader, then you must first become a learner.” The coach helped that child through his struggle by spinning the situation into a learning experience. At that moment, our coach recognized that our students needed to become learners before they could become leaders. That is when the concept of Students of Influence was born. St. Louis Public Schools had a history of students who continually blamed others for their individual failures and their team failures. It was always someone else’s fault. By blaming others, looking inward didn’t happen. Looking at how we could control the outcome by changing our actions didn’t exist. Our district needed to change that if we were ever going to begin to create real leaders in our high school. A New Partnership Develops Phil Maxwell, a St. Louis Public Schools coach and community member, and Jennifer McKittrick, high school principal, led a select group of students through a very intentional process. 12 MASA LEADER • Spring 2016 They taught students how to take their mistakes and failures and turn them into opportunities. We called our group Students of Influence. Mr. Maxwell stated, “If you want to be a leader, then you must first become a learner.” This is the key component to everything done in this group. Learning is one of the most unappreciated gifts that everyone receives, and for many, it is wasted. People often struggle with taking their mistakes and failures and turning them into opportunities. This thought is what spurred Mr. Maxwell to work with a group of 15 young people to help them learn from their mistakes and failures. Both male and female students ranging from freshmen to juniors met every Tuesday, starting the second semester of the 2014–2015 school year. All students signed a letter of commitment, finished the class, participated in a team-building event at the end of the school year, and developed a desire to learn no matter their failures. Meetings continued during the summer to develop a mission and vision for the program. New Opportunities for Our Students The first set of students selected were all athletes. The second group included students who were athletes, quiet and sheltered, strong willed, and/or struggling with behavioral issues. In both groups, there were two characteristics being sought: Demonstrating leadership and the ability to get students to follow. To be honest, sometimes this meant selecting a student with leadership qualities that were being used in a negative way. On the surface, these students may not be seen as leaders, but we saw the qualities within them. It was our job to turn that focus from negative leadership into positive leadership. We wanted to be very intentional in creating this leadership opportunity for our students. To achieve this goal, End of school year team building activities helped the Students of Influence group understand the leadership vision of the program.
MASA Leader - Sprin 2016
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