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The Challenge
The Challenge
Salisbury Academy Upper School opened in the 2023-2024 school year, my sophomore year. As a founding student and upperclassman, I carried the responsibility of helping to initiate, build, and lead our first extracurricular offerings.
In the summer of 2023, I emailed our principal, Mrs. Williams, with a list of club ideas that we could reasonably implement. As the school year began, we set to work establishing as many as we could. Providing a diverse selection of extracurriculars while staying focused on quality and not simply quantity.
One of the biggest challenges I faced as a leader was trying to build student leadership in a school that didn’t yet have shared expectations for what leadership should look like. Because the Upper School was brand new, there was no existing culture, no traditions to lean on, and no common understanding of whether organizations like Student Council were meant to be impactful, symbolic, or whether they should even exist. That uncertainty made it difficult to generate consistent engagement and accountability, especially when students were still figuring out what it meant to be part of this community that was being formed around them in real time.
As a student leader, I found myself navigating tension between keeping things accessible and pushing for something more intentional. Some peers preferred a relaxed, informal approach, instead of decorous meetings. Some wanted centralized leadership, others wanted a system of distributed leadership. At the same time, anything we chose to do, or not do, felt magnified, knowing that early decisions would help define the culture for future students and the true impact of student voice at the Upper School. All of that is to say that the true challenge I faced was positioning the Student Council to be an impactful organization within the Salisbury Academy Upper School.
For Student Council, I was elected to serve as Secretary my sophomore year, Vice President my junior year, and President my senior year.
For Junior Civitan, I was appointed Sergeant-at-Arms my sophomore year and was elected Treasurer my senior year. For Junior Civitan International, I was elected to serve as a International Director my junior year and International President my senior year.
For National Honor Society, I was elected to serve as Treasurer in my senior year.
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Learning Leadership from Leaders
Learning Leadership from Leaders
I conducted interviews with leaders in the local community to deepen my depth of knowledge of leadership. I reflected on each of these interviews in my leadership blog. Explore my blog by clicking on the icon to the left.
One thing that stood out to me most was how many of these leaders don’t view themselves as “leaders” in the traditional sense. They are leaders, don’t get me wrong, but they see their role as bringing people together to achieve a goal. They may have the final say, but fundamentally, their purpose is to support their team and push them toward success, not drag the team along behind them.
Trust came up again and again. Most of my interviewees emphasized how essential it is for a team to trust its leader, and how disastrous it can be when that trust is missing. They also frequently spoke about knowing where their role ends. Overstepping authority where it doesn’t belong only creates problems.
One piece of advice that stuck with me most was simple but powerful: everyone is human. At the end of the day, everyone has the same flaws, shaped by the challenges of the human condition. Recognizing that has changed how I think about leading, and about working with others to achieve common goals.
I also studied The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
I also studied The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
Culture is Key
Culture is Key
How do you make the Student Council a cornerstone of culture and community in a brand-new Upper School? That was the fundamental challenge. I strongly believed that if the organization had a clear structure, its legitimacy would naturally follow. If the organization itself were taken seriously, then people would see their involvement as important and their work as impactful.
As Daniel Coyle emphasizes in The Culture Code, purpose is critical. This is something I’m still actively working on with Student Council, because the core purpose of the organization: giving students a voice in the school, deserves to be taken seriously.
The process has been slow. It took us a year to realize that implementing a committee system would help us be productive, involve more people, and accomplish more. Introducing more formal meetings was initially met with resistance, but over time, people have come to appreciate the structure. I think this ties into Coyle’s ideas about safety: people trusted me enough to implement this new system, and the system itself has created a sense of fairness and inclusion, where everyone is equal under the procedures. Students who never spoke up before are now making motions and participating more. For example, Grayson Gardner went from rarely speaking in meetings to regularly making motions, championing ideas, and leading a brand-new committee. Because of these changes, he now has more opportunities than ever to positively impact the school and shape its culture. Grayson is a wonderful example of why the Student Council exists
Even though the changes took repeated explanations and discussions, highlighting Coyle’s point that “leaders are inherently biased to presume that everyone in the group sees things as they do, when in fact they don’t," the outcomes are already starting to show. Student Council meetings are more productive, participation has increased, and peers are viewing the organization as a legitimate, representative body rather than a symbolic title. While the Upper School is still new and we’re continuing to refine our processes, the norms we’ve established have begun shaping the school’s culture and will continue to do so for years to come.
"Leaders are inherently biased to presume that everyone in the group sees things as they do, when in fact they don’t."
"Leaders are inherently biased to presume that everyone in the group sees things as they do, when in fact they don’t."
— Daniel Coyle The Culture Code
Solitude and Leadership
Solitude and Leadership
At the beginning of the year, I studied William Deresiewicz's 2009 lecture given at the US Military Academy at West Point entitled Solitude and Leadership.
When I first read the lecture, what stood out to me most was that leadership isn’t about the things that usually come to mind. It’s not about titles, accomplishments, or giving orders; it’s about thinking independently and having the courage to act on your convictions. I was also surprised when Deresiewicz emphasized that true leadership requires reflection and moral clarity. I hadn’t fully realized how much solitary thought underpins the decisions that leaders make. It seems obvious in a lecture called Solitude and Leadership, but its importance really hit me as I reflected on my own experiences and the power of bearing witness to your own thoughts, devoid of distractions.
At the conclusion of the course, I returned to the text and found several new connections to my learning from leading and cultivating culture.
Leadership requires independent thought before action. Deresiewicz emphasizes that you can’t just follow the routines or popular choices if you want to create meaningful change. I saw this in my work shaping the Student Council, deciding on formal procedures, a committee system, and clear roles required stepping back, reflecting, and figuring out what the organization should be, not just what people wanted in the moment.
Solitude supports moral courage. Leaders must confront difficult questions on their own to understand their values. I experienced this when pushing for structural changes that were initially unpopular. I had to trust my judgment, anticipate how it would affect participation and fairness, and stand firm, showing courage even when others resisted.
Reflection enables others to grow. Deresiewicz points out that solitude and deep engagement help leaders guide others effectively. By creating structure, clear roles, and opportunities to participate, I saw students like Grayson Gardner step up in ways they hadn’t before, making motions, leading committees, and influencing school culture. Thoughtful reflection and planning, over several years, allowed me to build a system that empowered others to lead while staying true to our purpose: to give students a voice.
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