Excellence In leadership conference 2024

By Emma Sink, 2026

Published 5/2/2024

Cheshire High School seniors in Coach Lee’s Peer Health Educators class hosted the 2024 High School Excellence in Leadership Conference on April 30th. This group of seniors did a great job hosting about 300 hundred students from nine schools including Meriden, Southington, Berlin, Hamden, and Cheshire. Mr. Lee was and the Ryan T. Lee Foundation were tremendous help to this conference running so smoothly.

To start off the day, each student had a punch card with stations in the West Gym for an activity expo. These stations included pull ups, trivia, golf, free throws, connect four, and many more. Once a student completed their punch card, it was submitted into a raffle. Some of the activities were generously provided by the National Guard. Additionally, a culinary class at Cheshire High School provided breakfast. There was an impressive spread with muffins, scones, breads, parfaits, and bagels. 

After breakfast and activities in the gym, the students moved into the auditorium and separated into assigned groups. These groups allowed students from various schools to converse with each other. Once in these groups, Dr. Solan and Dr. Gadd gave inspiring speeches to the student leaders, along with Mr. Lee. Then the Peer Heath Project Management team presented their wonderful video on the theme of the day, communication, and explained how the day would go. 

Next, everyone went back to the West Gym in their designated group where leaders from the YMCA led some activities. The first activity had one person in the group drawing a photo that they could not see, so the group members described it. But everyone was told that one or more people were selected and told to lie about what the photo really looked like. If a group agreed, they could vote out people they thought were lying about the drawing and trying to sabotage the group. After completing the drawing, it was revealed that no one was told to lie. Another activity done was charades, a great bonding activity because it allowed everyone to be silly. 

The panel came next in the conference. On this panel were four powerful leaders who have and are continuing to make an impact on their community. Kevin Nathan is a news anchor for NBC Connecticut, and he was the moderator of the discussion. Cheshire High School and Yale University graduate Sebastian Little was a member of this year's panel. He played football at the collegiate level and became a Mental Performance and Leadership Coach. Quinnipiac Men’s basketball coach Tom Pecora was another panel member with great wisdom. Last but not least, Carly Thibault-DuDonis, coach of Fairfield University's Women's basketball team spoke on the panel. All four of these well accomplished leaders gave great advice on empathy, being in the moment, communication, leadership, and so much more. 

Following the panel was lunch! It was catered by Pops Pizza with meatballs, mac and cheese, salad, pulled pork, pizza, and more, it was all a hit. At lunch, a meaningful adult joined each table and spoke about leadership to their group. Not only did the adults ask questions, but so did the students to the interesting person sitting with them. 

Lastly, everyone met back in the auditorium for final remarks. The raffle winners and activity winners were announced and Mr. Lee spoke to everyone. A video was also shown of photos from the conference, which was made impressively fast by Mr. Solimine. Then it was time for the other schools to leave, so only Cheshire students remained. These students then played minute to win it games to finish out the day. 

Overall, the 2024 Excellence in Leadership Conference was an amazing experience. A huge reason this conference is so great is Mr. Lee and the whole Ryan T. Lee Memorial Foundation. A big thanks to Pops Pizza for the delicious food and Culinary for a wonderful breakfast. In addition, the panelists are vital to the day, so thank you to them for taking time out of their day to come speak to us. The YMCA and National Guard were also a great addition to the conference. Peer Health planned everything, so huge thank you to each and every student in the class.