Queen Creek, Arizona By: Queen Creek Unified School District

Remember back to when you were in school; what was your favorite field trip? More than 200 Queen Creek Unified School District students didn’t have to go very far to experience a field trip they may never forget. All the students were part of “Lead Out Loud”, the first ever district-wide student leadership conference. This conference is part of the QCUSD Strategic Plan: Excellence through Leadership; and is designed to help students and staff develop strong leadership skills.

At the conference, students learned what makes a strong leader and how to put leadership into action; then students were tasked with the 2016-2017 Leadership C.A.R.E Challenge. Leading with C.A.R.E means being a champion in the community, appointing others, raising school spirit, and energizing leadership activities with publicity.

Students who attended the conference now have a goal to develop a written C.A.R.E. Leadership Plan for their school. They will then present that plan to Superintendent Dr. Perry Berry in September and to the QCUSD Governing Board in December.

Other great moments from the conference included a huge game of Rock, Paper, and Scissors to break the ice, a thunderous singing of the QCHS Fight Song and an inspirational speech from Frank Kitchen, a local motivational speaker. All eight QCUSD schools were represented at the conference with about 25 students coming from each campus. The youngest students were third graders and the oldest students were high school seniors. While the day was filled with tons of fun and excitement, one of the coolest moments was seeing high school students help elementary students during breakout activities; that is leadership!

QCUSD hopes to make this an annual event.