McLean students love Homecoming, pep rallies and spirit weeks, none of which could be possible without the hard working team of students behind it all. The Leadership Class — taught by Karen McGraham and Cara Mosley, and often shortened as ‘McLeadership’ — is a unique class where students use collaboration and creative thinking skills to host special events for the school.
“Everything you learn in Leadership, you’ll use everywhere else in your life,” Mosley said. “People think we just put on events, but really it’s character building and the soft skills [that] are the most important.”
Each and every Leadership event takes extensive planning and effort from the students to be successful. They must come up with ideas, write the script, order the supplies and be on top of their projects’ deadlines. The class is divided into committees to create structure and ensure the work is evenly distributed.
“They divide up the work really well, and at the end it all comes together,” junior McLeadership member Andrea Sweeney said. “It makes [for] a cohesive project and is a lot easier.”
Although a fun class, McLeadership students work hard to make McLean better, and students must be motivated to be leaders in the building. The program is self funded, and the events are put on with money that the class raised, usually from Homecoming tickets or other fundraisers.
“I think a lot of people have a false conception that it’s an easy A class, but I wouldn’t call it that by any means,” senior Talia Bolden said. “It’s fun and you are very involved with the school, but just be prepared to work while you’re in class.”
Because it’s such a special elective, students must apply to join the class. If interested, you can get an application from either a Leadership teacher or from your counselor.
“We try to get a really good mix of kids,” McGraham said. “We want all grades because we want everyone in the school to feel like they can be involved and have a say in all the cool things we do.”
Since the content is so unique, there is no typical class structure, and each class period contains different activities. Most classes generally start off with a fun and interactive warmup that encourages collaboration, and from there students work on either preparing for or reflecting on an event.
McLeadership is a special team, and the events that make McLean fun would not happen without them. The class takes their responsibility very seriously, but also has a lot of fun while putting in the work required.
“[McLeadership] is special because they give you a bit more responsibility than just being a normal student,” senior Caf Eaton said. “We have to plan for these things for the whole school and we talk to the admin more, and have more of a say on things going on in our school.”
