Students from all advisories, nominated by peers and teachers, gathered on Friday, November 1 in the aux gym. According to one of the teachers running the Warrior Way Leadership Summit, Jennifer Carlson, students were selected to represent good leadership and promote that to other students within the school. They learned about leadership through doing activities and games.
Students led different activities for their peers to participate in. Olivia Rader (‘25) a second year participant in the summit, said “We had one [activity] where we grabbed hands in a group and had to untangle ourselves [which] was really fun because it challenged us and made us think about what we had to do as a group.”
The main focus of this was about the five com
mitments of WNHS. The five commitments are to follow the WCS electronic policy, be where supposed to be at all times, show kindness and follow the warrior way, always be at your absolute best and seek out a trusted adult when one is needed. When Kriyanna Scott (‘27) was asked what it means to her, she said “I think more so not what it means, but what it does because it does a lot for our community at WNHS [and] it helps stay on task, be kind, be better to our community and our people inside and outside our school.”
The goal of the leadership summit was to take students who were selected to attend and turn them into leaders. Wesley Elifritz, a speaker at the summit, said, “We want [students] to walk away with the confidence that they can be leaders to their peers here in the building.”
The agenda began with a meeting in the aux gym for the registration and welcome, followed by morning activities such as ‘WALT says’ which is a play on Simon says. Then, Principal Kurt Yancey spoke to the students. Afterwards, there were student-led activities, Cardinal Pizza for lunch and finally, they wrapped their day up with reflections. Before their lunch, they did a tradition that began at the very first Warrior Way Leadership Summit nearly 20 years ago.
Students were tasked with forming a ‘W’ and ‘N’ for a large group picture. But the catch was that they could not speak at all while they did it, challenging them to work together in ways other than speaking. At the very first summit, students gathered unprompted for this photo.
Before Kurt Yancey became the school’s principal, Jim Mccann created the ‘Warrior Way’ after racial tensions caused altercations during the school day. Yancey continued this motto into his job as principal, but when there was still tension between groups of students, he began the Warrior Way Leadership Summit.
The Leadership Summit is much different now than it was when it began 18 years ago. Yancey said, “I think that when we started doing the Leadership Summit, it was driven by the adults in the room [who] were leading all of the activities. You’ll notice in the afternoon that almost all of the activities are led by other students.”
Another change this year was that instead of doing it towards the end of the year, it is now hosted at the beginning in hopes of encouraging students to use what they have learned to lead other students for the entire year.
The summit’s grant was originally from Camp Mary Orton, but it was changed to Camp Lazarus because it was cheaper. Due to issues with getting buses and bus drivers, they had to host the event in the aux gym at WNHS.
Next year’s location is not confirmed yet, but Yancey said, “I think we’re going to write some more grant funding so that we can actually get charter buses.”
This means that the possibility of an off campus leadership summit in upcoming years is more probable.
On November 6, 2024,, students who attended the event will be going to advisories. Yancey adds, “The whole idea is that we’re letting students lead
