Grants Pass High School is a huge school of about 1700 students. It is quite the job to bring all of these diverse students together, but Leadership manages to do it. Leadership is a class and club on campus that organizes many incredible events for GPHS, such as dances, fundraisers, and assemblies. Advisors Aaron Matthews and Sarah Craven, together with their student team, create the opportunity for schoolwide culture and community.

Leadership has five committees, each with different responsibilities. The Spirit and Daytime committees are the ones behind Spirit Weeks and other everyday activities. They hang up posters, create the weekly announcements, run random, fun events during national holidays, and arrange lunchtime activities and games during Spirit Weeks. The Assemblies Committee organizes the Sparrow assemblies, the Homecoming assembly, and the Spring assembly. The Nighttime Committee promotes games and activities outside of school to promote student engagement. The final committee is Community Outreach. They collaborate with the Sparrow organization, Adopt-A-Family, visit elementary and middle schools, and are in charge of the Can Drive and the Coin and Coat Drive.

Sarah Craven has been co-teaching Leadership for three years now, having started teaching in the 2023-24 school year. Craven used to teach next to the Leadership program and loved watching them outside her class, promoting school spirit and support. During Craven’s first year teaching, a group of students came by her room on National Cereal Day and gave her some cereal. She thought the randomness and the positivity they spread was awesome. She believes that a Leadership student’s ”heart to serve others” is their most important quality because service drives everything they do. Craven stated a leader needs to have the desire to make life better for the community, district, and school. It is also important to be organized and have good interpersonal skills to work with others. Her favorite events that Leadership organizes are dances and the Sparrow.

GPHS senior Catie Beardslee was only in Leadership for one year, but she said it felt much longer because it was so much fun and everyone felt like one big family. For her first semester, she was on the Spirit Committee, where they organized daytime events like Popcorn at Lunch, Five-Star point redemption booths, dodgeball games, and Spirit Week themes. They also created Instagram posts and sold t-shirts at football games. In her second semester, she was in Community Outreach, where they primarily organized the Sparrow program. This led to them organizing Sparrow assemblies, coin drives, making stickers for the Sparrow, building gift baskets for those in need during the holidays, and organizing a multitude of fundraisers. Beardslee said the Sparrow impacted her the most. She felt proud of supporting the Sparrow Clubs financially and eventually contributing to saving the Sparrow's life. Her whole class was proud when the Sparrow was announced 100% cancer-free. Beardslee said that Leadership has taught her the value of togetherness and how working as a team can build a foundation to be a catalyst for change.