Leadership students participate in conference with elementary, middle schools

Leadership students from Saratoga High tried to impart their knowledge and wisdom to elementary and middle school students during a conference at Saratoga Elementary School on March 15.

The high school students broke off into presentation groups, in which they spoke to the younger students about subtopics in leadership. Topics ranged from public speaking to bullying to time management.

The students then played a game to demonstrate the importance of trust in leadership by allowing some students to walk blindly through a circle and rely on the others to make sure they did not collide with anyone or anything. The goal was to establish a sense of community and trust among the students.

The conference was not only beneficial for the younger students, but also for high school students, said senior Viraj Parmar, who has participated in the conference both years.

“Making a connection with the younger students helped to put things in perspective for me with regards to how qualities in a leader are developed,” Parmar said. “It also urged me to think long-term as to what kind of school we want to leave for future students and how we can ensure that our school culture is preserved.”

Parmar said he believes the conference has been a success the past two years and might become an annual tradition.

Senior Varsha Ramesh was in charge of coordinating with administrators from each school.

“I hope the [elementary and middle school students] learned about how easy it is to get involved and stay involved around school” Ramesh said. “ I also hope that they learned how to be better social leaders who make their schools better places.”

The leadership class spent about two weeks to plan the event and met with Diane Smalley, who works at the district office, to discuss details. However, many leadership students were unable to attend the conference because of tests or in-class activities, so some students from student council were invited to attend the event. Senior class president Nicole Shadman was among the students able to attend.

“It was really awesome just to see such young kids take an interest in school and being leaders, and I hope we led them in the right direction,” Shadman said.