Q&A: Students discuss leadership opportunities, responsibilities and their experiences in Warwick schools

WARWICK — Five students from the high school’s new Leadership Academy class recently sat down to discuss leadership. These students, Jennie Prial, Brogan Dineen, Emily Welling, Demi Herasme, and Jason and Thomas Nafash, spoke broadly about the various leadership opportunities at Warwick Valley High School, but also about their individual experiences.
Question: Looking back on your early years here in the school district, do you recall some of the leadership opportunities you had in elementary and middle school?
Answer:
The students all agreed that at the elementary and middle school levels, while the leadership opportunities may not have been so obvious to them at the time, looking back they acknowledge there were always small projects or classroom responsibilities that gave everyone a chance to help, supervise or positively influence their peers.
Jennie: Teachers had us taking turns to do different things in the classroom, whether it was clean-up duty or leading a project.
Question: What opportunities have you had to perform community service?
Emily: There are always opportunities to do community service. Student Senate does clothing drives, food drives and blood drives. As part of the Leadership Academy, we choose a service project in the fall and work on it throughout the year.
Jason: Jennie and I are doing a reading project for second-graders. On a regular basis, we go down to the elementary schools to read to second-graders.
Demi: Emily and I chose to fund raise for the Make-A-Wish Foundation this year. We’ve had a basketball tournament to raise funds, and hope to raise $7,500 in total, which is what it costs to make one wish come true for a child with cancer. If we make the amount for a wish, we’ll get to meet the child and find out what his or her wish is.
Brogan: I’m working with one of my classmates to organize a midnight run with St. Stephens. We’re helping the youth group there with plans to collect clothing and toiletries to bring to the homeless in New York City sometime in mid-March.
Thomas: My friend Jack and I are fund-raising for the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund – which helps families in the tristate area tackle childhood cancer. We ran a ‘Pass, Punt and Kick’ fund raiser in the fall, and a silent auction during homecoming. So far we’ve raised $350 – we’re hoping to reach $1,000 by the end of the school year.
Question: Do any of you attribute your high personal productivity and confidence levels to your leadership experiences at school?
Jennie: I think that, rather than leadership class or other leadership opportunities making me more productive, I think I’m just a naturally productive person. But Leadership class has given me more well-rounded sets of skills – some as simple as responding in a timely manner to emails. Simple, but important.
Emily: I’ve gained a lot of confidence during this class because it forces you to do things outside your comfort zone. We have guest speakers in the class, and it’s the students who contact and arrange for the speakers to come in. I contacted someone from Make-A-Wish to come in and speak to the class – it wasn’t anyone I already knew – I just had to call and ask. This can actually be uncomfortable for students – it makes you vulnerable to rejection.
Guest speakers lined up by Leadership Academy students this year were: Mr. Gonzales from Make-A-Wish; Warwick Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton; Jan Brunkhorst from Beautiful People; best-selling author Jim Defelice; Phil Royle, Project Manager for LEGO Land; school administrators Dr. Leach, Mr. Yap, Dr. Washington and Mr. Sirico; Secret Service Special Agent Kent McCarthy; Assemblymen Karl Brabenec and James Skoufis; the Athletic Director of Goshen Schools, Greg Voloshin; Warwick Town Judge Jeanine Wadeson; former school superintendent Ken Mitchell; Warwick School Board President Lynn Lillian; Vice President of Community and Corporate Relations for the N.Y. Giants, Allison Stangeby; Purple Heart recipient and WVHS teacher Eduardo Avila; the founder of Sustainable Warwick, Bob McGrath; Lt. Daniel Prial, USMA, helicopter pilot, Iraq; Holocaust survivor Aviva Cohen; State Comptroller Thomas DeNapoli, TJ Asprea, director of CBS Evening News and Warwick Alumnus; and State Senator John Bonacic.
Question: What opportunities have you had to attend leadership conferences or meet with leadership students from outside Warwick?
Brogan: Jason and I went to the LEAD Conference in Washington, D.C. last year. A different group went this year.
Jason: It was a great experience because of the excellent speakers and workshops.
Brogan: We got different perspectives from diverse groups of students from all over the country. It made us realize all of the opportunities we have here in Warwick, whereas students in other parts of the country don’t have nearly as many. I met a girl from the state of Florida, who doesn’t have Student Senate at her school. So she had to fight to convince school administrators and her teacher to attend the conference. It was a really big deal for her.
Question: Do you consider any of your teachers or other adults in your life to be role models?
Demi: Leadership class students just recently had to consider this question. We were asked to write a “Gratitude Letter” to someone in the District who helped them or who they looked up to. I wrote to former teacher Mr. Sattler. We invited all the letter recipients to an upcoming reception in their honor here at school.
Question: Since all of you participate in school sports, can you also talk about how sports in Warwick help bring out the leadership abilities in students?
Jennie: Cross Country Track and Basketball: In Warwick, your team is like your family – you look out for one another. Being on a Warwick team shows you how to be a leader by caring for your teammates. You naturally take on the responsibility of helping and showing the ropes to younger teammates.
Thomas: Track and Field: With track in Warwick, everyone is a leader and displays their personal leadership because of tradition. The tradition of excellence, discipline, achievement. The coaches tell you that just because others before us achieved a lot and were the best of the best doesn’t mean we’ll automatically get that too. We all need to do our jobs and put in the effort – nothing is given to us, we have to earn it.
Demi and Emily: Basketball: On the basketball team, we definitely have the teamwork mind set and determination. We’re in it for each other, not for individual stats and glory.
Emily: We vote for a captain of the team, and what we look for in that person is confidence and good sportsmanship.
Brogan: Lacrosse: We’re not having team captains this year. We’re hoping the natural leaders on the team will emerge, and it also means everyone really has to step up and be “captain-like.”