More than 130 Holton and Landon students teamed up for a unique "preseason" experience this week: the Third Annual Holton-Landon Leadership Summit. The event is open to Upper School students in select grades who are interested in further exploring and cultivating leadership skills.
The summit's three days of programming included one day just for each school and one collaborative day on Holton's campus. Workshops and discussions covered topics like common traits of effective leaders, how to identify and leverage individual strengths, School strengths and areas for growth, and constructive conflict resolution.
For the first time, the summit also featured facilitator training for 26 Holton and Landon students, who then led small-group workshops during the collaborative day.
The event's keynote speaker was well-known sports columnist, commentator, and author Christine Brennan. Brennan told students about her background as a longtime athlete and writer and how she built a successful career and life around these passions. She spoke candidly about obstacles she's faced and injustices she's seen over the years—particularly as a woman in a male-dominated field—and how she's used her platform to uplift others and advocate for positive change.
"There is no secret recipe to success," she told students. But some of the ingredients she believes are critical are hard work, perseverance, minding the details and one's manners, and ignoring naysayers.
"This ain't no dress rehearsal," she said.
Holton student Sydney Pham '20 says she took so much from the summit. "We focused a lot on quiet leadership and how we don't need a title or position to be a leader. We also talked about ways we could take our own strengths and use them to help a group or a team."
She feels the most important takeaway for attendees was "that leading by example can sometimes have the biggest impact--and how doing the little things, like picking up a piece of trash, can add up, make a difference, and motivate others to do the same."