Student Leadership Conference inspires innovators

Fayette County Public Schools hosted a Student Leadership Conference geared towards empowering the next generation of leaders.

Held at Sandy Creek High, students teeming with potential and eager to help their classmates gathered to jumpstart the school year under the motto: Lead Well. Compete Hard. Serve Better. Along with inspirational talks, participants could pick from informative breakout sessions focused on topics like fitness habits, effective communication, school-sports-life balance, and learning from mistakes.

Assistant Superintendent of Student Achievement Maggie Walls urged the participants to be an example for others.

“Your presence, your influence makes others feel restored, no matter what happened,” she said. “What will become possible for someone else because of you, because of your example, because of your leadership, that honestly is what is being asked of you.”

Sandy Creek alum and NFL veteran Andrew Gardner spoke on the theme “Success is Not a Straight Line.”

McIntosh Athletic Director Dr. Jason Carrera introduced his talk.

“Success rarely happens the way you expect it to,” Carrera said. “Your path does not have to be perfect, or even predictable, to be successful.”

Gardner talked about the importance of mindset and framing what success means to you. You can take any goal that is exciting or scary and make it your own.

“You have to make that decision and no one can make it for you,” he said. “Whatever you want to accomplish, it’s not going to happen on accident. It has to happen on purpose.”

The bumps along the way help shape your finished product.

“One of the best ways to grow is adversity, and it can either crush you or make you stronger.”

In the end, it is all about taking aim at success and never letting it go.

“All you can do is aim at something good and do everything you can to get there. Do it over and over again,” he said. “You will do something worthwhile in this world.” 

Chick-fil-A Chairman Dan Cathy had a fireside chat with Walls called “Serve Bigger: The Challenge.”

Cathy urged the students to understand that they were at the conference for a reason.

“You are here because people see leadership talent in you. Step up to the plate,” said Cathy. “Others may see your leadership ability before you do. They see your leadership in the quiet times. They see how you’re encouraging other people.”

He talked about the importance of lifting up everyone on your team.

“Praise in public, criticize in private,” he advised. “Nothing encourages people more than affirmative, encouraging, positive words.”

Cathy advised them to encourage themselves first and don’t be afraid to grow. He considers himself to always be “in training” and asked them to do the same.

“If you take a chance and try something that doesn’t work, you have to be able to recover from that,” he said. “That’s the best way to be a great leader is to let people see that you’re adventurous, that you’re curious, that you have an insatiable appetite to learn and grow.”

 

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Chick-fil-A Chairman Dan Cathy and Sandy Creek alum and NFL veteran Andrew Gardner meet with participants at the Student Leadership Conference.