Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Patricia Green has instigated a new Community Builders Program, which provides leadership opportunities for students that focus on three levels of peace education: peacekeeping, peace building and peace making skills.
“Developing student leadership should start early in school and this is a program designed to utilize high school student leaders in connection with elementary student leaders, under the guidance of teacher facilitators,” said Dr. Green. “The Community Builders program is a new, formalized district-wide elementary student leadership program recognizing and celebrating those schools demonstrating the most respectful behaviors as a school. It is designed to reinforce the concept of creating and keeping caring communities.”
As part of the program, two students are selected to represent their school as Community Builder Delegates each year. The delegates act as ambassadors to promote school as a safe place for all, provide insight from a student perspective, share information from District Assemblies with staff and students at the school, and build leadership skills through interaction with fellow student leaders.
The students convened in the first District Student Leadership Assembly Friday Nov. 30 at Pioneer High School, where they shared their school progress and successes, learned about leadership skills, and interacted with administrators. The Student Leadership Assembly will meet three times each year.
“I am thrilled to see the Community Builders program unfold exactly as I had dreamed it would when I first introduced the concept here in AAPS,” said Dr. Green. “My expectations of the program regarding developing elementary student leadership are soaring and seeing the students and facilitators come together at the first Student Leadership Assembly last week was phenomenal!
“This is an exciting new program bringing together elementary student leaders in a Student Leadership Assembly and going back to their buildings to design activities with other students around the theme of ‘caring communities.’ The students are terrific; the teacher-facilitators are awesome; the high school student leaders who acted as role models are superb and it feels so wonderful to visualize a program and then see it come to life in such a spectacular way!! I am so thrilled and delighted to have interacted with all of them at the opening Student Leadership Assembly last week. They did a great job!”
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