December 6, 2022
Prince Student Government Partners with Leadership Program
By: Leila Todd (PACS junior)
In an attempt to build stronger leaders in their high school community, Prince Avenue Christian School recently partnered with Chick-fil-A Leader Academy (CLA), a program designed to improve leadership in high school students through various service projects. CLA originates from the corporate Chick-fil-A level, but partnership with a local Chick-fil-A has given Prince the opportunity to participate. The current participants of the program are Prince’s 9th-12th grade student government officers.
Once a month during lunch, student government members participate in “Leader Labs”, workshops designed to teach specific leadership principles. CLA focuses on five major leadership skills throughout the program, including servant leadership, teamwork, innovation, communication, and impact. Once Prince’s student government members have learned the leadership skill during their monthly meeting, they form a service project through which they can apply their skill.
The first leadership skill for the school year was “impact”, so students were given the opportunity to involve themselves in impacting the local community. Chick-fil-A directly donated 1,000 books to Prince’s CLA program, and student government members personally wrote encouraging notes in them. They then took time out of their busy school day to hand-deliver all 1,000 books to Alps Road Elementary School in support of their upcoming literacy night.
The start of December brings a new leadership skill, servant leadership, and Prince’s student government officers have already begun their next project. “Stuff the Bus” is a service project designed to send snacks to families in need at local children’s hospitals. As opposed to the first service project, “Stuff the Bus” is a school-wide project, so all Prince students will participate by bringing in pre-packaged snacks and competing against opposing grade levels to bring in the most snacks. Through the “Stuff the Bus” project, student government officers simultaneously gain the opportunity to serve families in need and the responsibility that comes with designing a project and executing it efficiently.
Over 1,050 schools across the nation currently participate in the CLA program and actively serve their local communities. In Prince’s pursuit to foster Christ-like leaders, the CLA program is an exciting addition to the high school culture, and student government’s involvement is evidence of CLA’s current and future impact at Prince.
Pictured from left to right: Daniel Schroeder, Gracie Cochran, Kaitlyn Ward, and Maddox Drake