Their Turn to Lead

A year ago, Val '28 stepped off a minibus at the end of Wilderness Orientation and found Proctor's student leaders waiting in matching light-green shirts. "Getting off that bus … was pretty intimidating," he reflected. "But they were all super welcoming." In that moment, "all the worries about not fitting in just kind of vanished." The opportunity to lead and to become highly engaged in a school community was an important part of what brought Val to Proctor. Entering his second year, he is a Dorm Leader in Farm House and a Class Representative, elected by the junior class. His first year followed an arc many Proctor students will recognize. He returned from Orientation in the White Mountains with several deep connections, made more over the course of the fall term, tried rock climbing, took on different roles in the theater, and found himself delivering his Hays Speech in front of his 10th-grade English class. In Val’s case he was selected as one of the Hays Speaking Prize finalists. Before his second year began, he was invited to Student Leadership Camp for the first time.
 

When we give students real work in a leadership role they rise to the occasion. Things won't always run smoothly. Rough patches are part of any leadership role, for adults and students alike, and they're where growth happens. As Ali '29, one of the youngest students at this year's camp, reflected, "in order to learn and grow as a leader you have to fail and learn from those experiences." Most of the time, though, we are simply blown away. Students run all-school assemblies, direct their own plays, speak on admissions panels, attend every faculty meeting as School Leader and Assistant School Leader, and work through the logistics of matching every new student with a returning student Mentor based on shared interests and experience. 
 

UCLA professor and researcher Andrew Fuligni argues that the drive to contribute to community takes on a special importance in the adolescent years, as young people become able to make more tangible and consequential contributions, large and small. Those opportunities, he adds, have to be authentic. Educators and mentors can best support that growth by pairing high standards with the support to meet them. Institutional norms and school culture matter, too, in how students approach leadership. Bria '28 referenced calling teachers by first names, a practice Proctor borrowed from Outward Bound in the early 1970s, and a signal that students and faculty are partners in learning. For Bria, first names are part of "how we all feel included and feel like leaders ourselves." 
 

In leadership roles, students practice skills that will serve them well after Proctor: listening to a peer who disagrees, taking a student-body concern to the professional community, and turning ambitious ideas into a workable plan. Some student leadership is highly visible, but much of it happens out of view. Students start or steward clubs, lead in classrooms, on teams, or in afternoon activity groups, and step in when the local community needs help.
 

This year, 41 students gave up the last week of summer to participate in Student Leadership Camp. They started Monday morning by walking new students to the dining hall and sending the Orientation groups off, and then gave the first afternoon to one question: Leadership is…? While new students backpacked through the White Mountains, this group trained as “Campus Lifeguards,” acted out situations they will likely face as leaders, then talked them through, and closed each night with a memory of the day.

Path to Leadership

Several of the leaders I spoke with remember the students who helped them when they were new. Will '27 arrived knowing few people. "Some of the only people I knew at the school were in leadership," Will says, "and I looked up to them a lot."

Ember '28 came to Proctor as a freshman nervous about finding a place socially, and upperclassmen stepped in to help. "I want to be that person for someone else," Ember says. Leadership camp, Ember adds, "has really given me the tools to … be that mentor."

This year, Eliza '27 runs the peer mentor program, which matches underclassmen with mentors so each has "someone to guide them with these first few weeks and into the year."
 

Developing Self-Awareness

Miles '27 came away with a lesson about where leadership starts: "How to lead myself before I start to lead others, because if you can't manage yourself, then … you can't do anything." Eliza approached it from a slightly different angle: "The way I act is going to help shape how everyone else acts."

A Monday night session on personality strengths gave students language for their own tendencies. For Bria, it meant knowing "when it's time for me to take a step back and let someone else lead…really let their strengths shine." Ember knows the ability to "hype up people" is a strength and staying organized is a growth opportunity, so the week became a lesson in spotting "tasks that I should hand off to other people."
 

Partnering with the Professional Community

As part of the week's "Sense of Place" sessions, the group spent Wednesday morning shadowing our Facilities, Housekeeping, Dining Services, and Admissions teams. Alison, from our Housekeeping team, cleans Farm House along with two other dorms, and she "comes in at like 3:00 in the morning," Val says. He hopes "to introduce all of Farm House to our housekeeper," so that the dorm and the person who cares for it get to know each other and stay connected.

Will, who also holds a leadership role in a dorm this year, says "it's on us … to support the backbone of our community." Will also had a list ready of ways students can help: trash bagged, boxes broken down, bathroom counters cleared, and shoes off when winter sand comes in. "Just little things that save a few minutes on their day," Will adds.
 

Most striking was just how self-aware this group was. A student who can name their strengths, recognize where they can improve, and the way they affect the people around them is building lifelong skills. When this year's new student Orientation groups returned on Friday midday, student leaders wore this year’s edition of the Leadership Camp shirt, a striking blue-green. Val is not sure yet what his leadership style looks like, and he calls that the fun part. "You do this leadership camp not only as someone who is a leader already, but really someone who wants to be a leader, wants to improve their community," he says. "And so I guess the answer is we'll find out."

Thank you to Class Deans Megan Hardie and Kyle Connolly, Dean of Students Drew Donaldson, and Student Life Coordinator Ricardo Culler, who organized Leadership Camp and made the week possible. We can’t wait to see how this group steps into their leadership roles this school year!

Learn More About Proctor's Educational Model