On May 28, 2021, Principal Keri Hagness, English teacher Eric Carroll, and Library Media Specialist Shannon Robinson held a leadership conference. Morgan sophomores and juniors were invited to the event. This event was to help find where the Morgan spirit has gone.

Mrs. Hagness said, “I feel like as a whole we have lost our spirit throughout the years, and I honestly am afraid that we will not get it back.” Over the past few years, many students have stopped participating in spirit weeks, the dog pound, and just stopped being a true Morgan Husky.

The first event in the conference was speaker Kyle Willkom. Kyle is a youth leadership speaker as well as a musician. He talked about the importance of staying positive no matter what life throws at you because you are not promised a tomorrow. Kyle’s mantra is “Nothing happens unless something moves; unless you take action nothing will change.” The goal of his speech was to promote making others feel seen as well as making you feel good. He used the example: imagine everyone had “make me feel important” on their forehead because we never know what people are going through.

Sophomore Muntara Singh took a lot from Kyle’s workshop, “I never thought of it like this. We really never know what people are going through. Being a part of the Morgan family means being there for each other, and I feel like we have lost that.”

The next speaker was Amanda Magee. Amanda is a mother that loves to blog in her free time. In her workshop, she talked about how to “rebrand” Morgan. She talked about not compromising yourself to fit in, thinking before you speak, and how “I’m fine” is always a lie. Amanda focused on the mental health aspect of school. “I feel like mental health is more important than learning where rocks come from.” She admitted that school is important, but if we want to stay a family, we need to check on and support one another.

This speech resonated with all the students, and after many had discussed how they feel about mental health in schools, sophomore Sara Carey asked the question “I feel like they preach mental health, but do they really care about it?”

The students had a long talk with the teachers and explained where they were coming from and why they felt that way. All the teachers agreed with the students that our mental health should be more important than a textbook assignment.

After the students’ discussion, Mrs. Robinson took the students outside to do a leadership style activity. All students were asked to stand in a line and listen to the directions given. Each round there were different questions asked and students were to take a step for one answer or stay still for the other. This activity helped the students identify which leadership style they prefer. There are four styles of leadership: socializers, relaters, thinkers, and directors.

Socializers tend to be the life of the party, very energetic, and get along well with other socializers. Relaters tend to be friendly and get along well with others. They are also very good listeners. Thinkers or analyzers tend to be task oriented, think things through, and do not work very well with socializers. Directors love to take charge and are seen as dominant. It was important for the students to learn about these leadership styles, so they could further understand why they lead the way they do. All the leadership styles were put into groups and made posters that showcased how their style worked.

Lastly, the sophomores and juniors helped prepare for next year. This included planning STEP, spirit weeks, and pep rallies. Mrs. Hagness wanted all students to put in their input and come up with ideas so that everyone would participate. Many students felt that we need more student-led activities to get more people involved.

Overall, the leadership conference affected many students and has changed their views on how we should be seen as a school, as well as leaders. They are excited to change things up and see how it goes next year.

Mrs. Hagness reflected and talked about how she felt. She brought up how the pandemic has changed our school. We had a difficult time trying to be together because we are cohorted. This event made her reflect on how we can do things differently next year and do better as a student body. The staff can also make changes to improve Morgan. She is very excited to see what the future holds, and is thankful for this experience.