Empowering Leaders of Tomorrow

Alice Moore, Associate Head of School, emphasizes encouraging leadership across the grades. “Building agency is so important. Students can act to make a change, whether designing the lost and found procedures or making presentations to share knowledge at assemblies. Their actions make a difference.” 

Starting in kindergarten and first grade, students learn to speak in front of their peers. Kindergarteners bring an object from home to share and talk about with their classmates and practice asking and answering questions. First graders participate in creating and presenting projects, one of which includes “Superstar of the Week.” The “superstar” student of the week creates a poster of their full body outline, fills the inside with activities or items they like and characteristics that make them unique, and then presents their creations to their classes. These creative activities were designed to develop their public speaking skills and confidence. 

Second and third-graders begin to take those fundamental skills to a grander scale. Second-grade students participate in a play and stand on stage for the first time, performing in front of other students, staff, faculty, parents, and other family members. Third graders take on an electricity project and present it to the school community at the Circuit Circus. They learn to get comfortable repeating their presentations to different audiences and answering questions on the spot. 

Fourth graders are the leaders of Lower School, with many responsibilities. Starting on the second day of school, they act as “Morning Buddies,” guiding kindergarteners onto campus. They are also in charge of the Lost and Found for the school, making weekly rounds to classrooms to ensure lost, labeled items find their way back to their owners. Over the school year, they rotate leadership roles and take turns facilitating various activities in weekly assemblies, including mindfulness exercises, questions of the week, and gratitude practices. 

Each fourth grader also has the opportunity to discuss ideas with the Lower School Director, who provides them with the resources to execute their visions. For example, students wanted to promote more inclusive recess activities, so they worked with the Lower School Director to create a friendship circle. Others started “quiet” recess activities for those who want to partake in play but do not want to play ball games.

Lower School Director Margot Zahner believes "Lower School students develop leadership skills and flourish as they contribute to our school community through age-appropriate leadership opportunities. We aim to empower students to be leaders of their learning and within our community by giving students voice and choice in how they will make a positive impact."

In Upper School, Burke’s students engage in leadership opportunities that range from public speaking to managing grand-scale theater projects. The opportunities are varied, such as working individually or collaboratively and/or being formally recognized with a title in student government.

A key element of promoting leadership is furthering students’ sense of their voices. This most frequently shows up in assemblies where every seventh-grade student gives a public speech once during the school year. In addition to this seventh-grade rite of passage, students may also elect to present topics and causes that are important to them at Upper School assemblies.

 

Upper Schoolers have opportunities to handle teams or large group settings, guiding their classmates and overseeing projects together. Some of these projects include running Burke’s Zine: Written in Roots in conjunction with faculty advisors, supervising various Yearbook teams as editors, managing sports teams and events as team captains, and guiding the eighth-grade musical as stage managers and team leads. 

Students may also run for elected office in the student government, known as Youth Voice. A cohort of nine students is elected across four offices: Moderator, Equity and Inclusion, Spirit, and Service and Sustainability. Youth Voice meets once a week to prepare for and discuss upcoming announcements, projects, and activities for the Upper School’s weekly assemblies, collaborating with the Faculty Advisors. 

“Our Youth Voice Officers hold the unique responsibility of organizing an assembly almost every week of the school year,” says Upper School Director Sheena Tart-Zelvin. “This is more commonly seen in high school, yet our students rise to the occasion in finding their voice, leading the community, and modeling our values. They sharpen their time management skills, develop a greater understanding of what it means to be a team, and stretch themselves in understanding perspectives that are not their own so they can center the needs of the broader community.” 

Students don’t need to hold elected office to make a difference on campus. Two eighth graders ran for Youth Voice with the idea of creating a 5th/8th grade buddy program. They remembered the transition to the Upper School and how they would have liked to connect with an older student. They aren’t holding office this year but found faculty support and held the first 5th/8th-grade buddy meetup this fall!