ISLLC Standard 4.0-Candidates who complete the program are educational leaders who have the knowledge and ability to promote the success of all students by collaborating with families and other community members, by responding to diverse community interests and needs, and by mobilizing community resources.

Alex's Lemonade Fundraising and Leadership explanation and reflection:

This standard in theory, exposes a person to community interests and involvement in the process of mobilizing community resources throughout the school system that can be used in order to maintain and create a positive learning environment experience. I felt that my involvement throughout my internship with Alex's Lemonade stand falls into Standard 4.0 because I took my experience and theory from my courses in the Leadership program, and turned in into practice.

Every year, the school that I work in decides a few community service organizations to donate to or support throughout the year. This year, our school decided to donate and support “Alex’s Lemonade Stand.” Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) is a national childhood cancer foundation dedicated to raising funds for research into new treatments and cures for all children battling cancer. The mission of this organization is to change the lives of children with cancer through funding research, raising awareness, supporting families, and empowering everyone to help cure childhood cancer.

I had the great opportunity of taking this on, and working with my assistant principal in organizing an end of the year walk for all 6^th graders to raise money and awareness for “Alex’s Lemonade Stand.” Not only did I organize the walk, but I in fact was in charge of communicating with families, students, and stakeholders about our fundraiser and raising awareness as to how we can collaborate and bring this fantastic organization into our school and classrooms.

We found that this organization touched our hearts and we wanted to continue the mission that young Alexandra once started. This was a fantastic opportunity to interact with the larger community, give back, and establish a leadership role as well as reflect on how this opportunity has led me to establish and maintain that this should fall into Standard 4.0. This activity also shares it's space with Standard 1.0 which created a vision for a school and a common goal. However, I believe that the communication done between our school, community and stakeholders puts this more into Standard 4.0 due to the incredible job that was done throughout the entire school year.

On April 1^st, 2019, the 6^th grade team met with Mrs. Curran, the assistant principal of the 6^th grade to discuss an end of the year event that we could host in order to raise more money for “Alex’s Lemonade Stand.” We came up with the idea of a “6^th grade walk” to raise awareness and money for childhood cancer research.

I was in charge of reaching out to our community and parents, as well as creating permission slips for the students, collection of monies, and coming up with a list of all of the students participating. Together with our program coordinator, I checked with Mrs. Curran and the other assistant principals to make sure there were no 6^th grade trips on the days that we were considering to walk. I determined (along with the program coordinator) that May 31st, during the last four periods of the school day would be the best day to conduct the walk.

The permission slip stated that all 6^th graders who wanted to take part in the walk could send in a donation of five dollars in order to participate along with signed parental consent. The students could wear their yellow “Alex’s Lemonade Stand” t-shirts as well that day. It was a large task to keep track of each student participating, but I felt it was great to work on my multi-tasking skills of administration and programing along with communicating with the Alex's Lemonade Stand Organization and community of parents that wanted to partake in this tremendous fundraiser and awareness event.

Once the list of all the students participating was completed, I then emailed it to all of our faculty and staff with directions on when to bring students to the courtyard, where each class was assigned to start the walk, and security measures as per Mrs. Curran’s request. The program coordinator then organized a place for all students not participating to go to during the last four periods of the day and assigned teachers to stay in with them. On the morning of the walk, I was able to go over last minute details with my assistant principal as far as classes assigned to which areas to start their walk and where teachers would be standing to maintain order and security around the perimeter of the building while students walked. Once the walk began, I felt a sense of completion. This event took all of our hard work collecting and communicating all year, and wrapped it up into a fun event at the end of the year!

As a leader, there is always an importance in communicating not only with your staff and students, but with parents, the community surrounding, and stakeholders involved with the school. This opportunity made me realize that practicing communication skills and surrounding myself with a team that consisted of teachers, leaders, students, and parents helped this process of fundraising possible throughout the entire year. In the end, it was a great opportunity to expose my leadership capabilities and take the theory of leadership into practice.

Overall, we had 312 students participate in the walk and we raised $1,560 dollars throughout the year that was donated towards childhood cancer research. It was an accomplishment organizing such a large group of students and faculty so that we could all participate in this tremendous cause. It was with pride that I was able to work with my assistant principal and establish a leadership role that others could trust in. Organization, confidence, teamwork, and time management were key elements in making sure the events of this day were carried out properly and efficiently. Everyone involved with this event had a specific role in order for things to run smoothly. Trust was put in me to make sure our students were in the right place at the right time and all students participating were organized properly. Working as a team with administration and multiple members of my faculty helped to establish order and efficiency during the event and the time leading up to the walk.