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Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2007 / Catholic school students in Detroit focus on leadership

Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published November 9, 2007

Mary Jo Evens | Holy Redeemer Elementary Seventh-grader Joshua Chazarria (right) helps paddle a canoe with newly made friends from other Detroit middle schools during the leadership conference in Howell Oct. 23-24.

Detroit – "There's a big difference between knowing what's right and doing what's right."

"You're going to meet a lot of people in life who have very different ideas than your own, so keep an open mind."

"People won't know what you're trying to do unless you can communicate clearly to them."

Do these jewels of wisdom sound like advice parents and teachers would give to a middle school student?

Actually, this is the kind of advice seventh- and eighth-grade students from Detroit's Catholic schools have learned and are relaying to their own peers.

"In the middle school grades, six, seven and eight, you are basically the leaders of the school and you have to represent yourself to the younger kids so they will know how to act," says Jasmine Garrett, a seventh-grader at Christ the King Elementary in Detroit. "Knowing how to be a leader is to show other students how to act."

Mary Jo Evens | Holy Redeemer Elementary Students from various schools in Detroit work on a puzzle exercise during the leadership conference.

Students at St. Mary of Redford School in Detroit joined students from every other Catholic school in Detroit at a camp last month to learn important lessons on leadership. From left: eighth-graders Jazmine Lanier-Hall and Raven Hill, seventh-grader Devonte Green, and eighth-grader Marquis Walker.

Jasmine is one of about 70 students in the Catholic schools in Detroit chosen by teachers and principals to attend a camp on leadership. The students, who gathered at the Howell Conference and Nature Center for a two-day retreat last month, learned important skills in team building, communication, keeping a positive attitude, and helping those around them.

The event was put on by the Greater Detroit Education Alliance, a nonprofit organization that aims to strengthen inner city education, and co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Detroit's Office for Catholic Schools.

"We think it's important for the kids to have an outdoor experience, and to meet kids from other Detroit Catholic schools," says Rosanne Jodway, principal of Christ the King and also a board member of the GDEA. "We also thought it's important at middle schools to start talking about leadership skills and what it takes to be a leader."

And while the GDEA prepared a host of activities Oct. 23 and 24, from icebreakers to communications exercises and even a canoe trip — the students are carrying on the talk of leadership at their schools.

"We can help each other be good leaders," says Daniel Myles, an eighth-grader from East Catholic Elementary on Detroit's east side, "and have people follow us so they will have positive attitudes and positive futures."

Daniel says meeting his peers from other Detroit schools was important because, in the future "it will not only be (people) from other schools, but from other ethnicities and other parts of the world."

Plus, he adds, it's important to be open-minded about the perspectives of others.

Colette Berg, an eighth-grader from Gesu, agrees.

"We go to a small school, so for the past couple years we've been hanging out with the same group of people," Colette says. "It's also important to be a leader with new people you meet. It's good to expand your horizons."

Many students took to different lessons about leadership. Jazmine Lanier-Hall, an eighth-grader at St. Mary of Redford school on Detroit's west side, has formed an opinion about what the most important aspect of leadership is.

"I would say communication," Jasmine says. "If you can't communicate with others, you can't make your team the best and the strongest."

Jasmine adds that learning leadership skills in the eighth grade is helpful because it allows her to help peers — like her fellow cheerleaders on the school's cheerleading squad.

Her classmate, Marquis Anderson, says he has a similar situation. He plays organized football, and has been at the sport longer than most others on the team.

"For the rookies that don't start, I like to tell them to keep their head up on the sidelines and stuff … if people are in the game, I can tell them never to give up," Marquis says.

The Greater Detroit Education Alliance has seen many positive signs coming out of its leadership conference in Howell. It plans to continue the camp in future years.

"They learn a number of skills that they don't necessarily learn in a classroom," says Christa Laurin, assistant principal at Gesu, who accompanied the students to Howell.

A big plus for the program, she adds, is that it targets those children who are enthusiastic about developing their sense of leadership.

"These are students who are showing leadership potential," says Laurin. "And this gives them a positive way to use those skills they have and help develop those skills in a Christian manner."

The conference started on a smaller scale last year, and through fundraising was able to support the representatives from all Detroit Catholic schools this year.

John Kiley, a teacher at East Catholic, who accompanied his school on its first trip this year, is one administrator who hopes it keeps going.

Kiley says the leadership conference was exciting for the students and, importantly, will translate into better readiness for high school.

"When they get to those bigger schools, I think they develop some confidence from being leaders in their small schools," Kiley says. "That carries over. They've just developed some of those abilities and learned how to motivate themselves in some positive ways."