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<\/p>\nSpeaking at the school division\u2019s Official for a Day (OFAD) program, Trina Chakrabortty reflected on her own OFAD experience in 2002 as a senior at Princess Anne High School (PAHS). The program partners VBCPS high school students with school and city officials for a half day of job shadowing, and Chakrabortty joined then-city manager Jim Spore to review plans for the area to be developed as Town Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, they were just plans,\u201d said Chakrabortty describing her hardhat tour of the Armada Hoffler building and its rooftop view.<\/p>\n
In 14 years that followed, Town Center was constructed and has grown. In that same timespan, Chakrabortty has followed her own plans and shared that much of her growth and success can be attributed to her experiences with VBCPS student leadership programs. As an undergraduate student at the College of William and Mary, graduate student at the University of Southern California and current student in Virginia Commonwealth University\u2019s School of Medicine, Chakrabortty has found that her value and demonstration of servant leadership has served fellow students, colleagues, patients and herself well.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife is no \u2018brief candle\u2019 for me,\u201d read Chakrabortty from a poem by George Bernard Shaw. \u201cIt is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The splendid torch of student leadership is one that schools throughout the division aim to illuminate and share with a variety leadership workshops and training programs. All 11 comprehensive high schools host weekend workshops and select middle schools have programs as well.<\/p>\n
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Camiya Hairston, a PAHS senior in the audience for Chakrabortty\u2019s opening remarks at OFAD, has fond memories from her first school leadership workshop as a ninth-grader.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the first time I felt like I belonged and was a part of the school,\u201d reflected Hairston. \u201cI met more people in that weekend than I had all year.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what school leadership workshop advisers like Drew Midgette want to hear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know from my personal experience and from the experiences of my peers, leadership workshop has definitely shaped our lives for the better,\u201d said Midgette, an adviser for Kempsville High School\u2019s leadership workshop and a Larkspur Middle School teacher. \u201cLeadership workshop allows students to come together and learn essential skills to make their school and community a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Darcy Pohl, a teacher and leadership workshop adviser at Ocean Lakes High School, echoes Midgette\u2019s thoughts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to provide a culture where we value leadership as a service, bring leadership qualities back to Ocean Lakes, give back to the community and give students skills they will take with them into real-life situations,\u201d said Pohl.<\/p>\n
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Giving students an opportunity to be active participants in their education is also part of such programs. Salem High School\u2019s (SHS) leadership workshop in February featured a session with the school\u2019s principal for students to share their thoughts with administrators.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents participated in a student voice session with Mr. Delaney to give him input on school topics they think are important,\u201d explained Leslie Lehner, SHS teacher and workshop adviser. \u201cThe students worked with a student leader facilitator to analyze a pre-selected group of topics to share with him [and] give feedback on how to improve those things within the school.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The conversations between Salem students and administrators continue back at school with regular meetings of Salem Speaks.<\/p>\n
Fostering student involvement, developing decision-making and communication skills and\u00a0instilling\u00a0a culture of servant leadership are only some of the desired outcomes of schools\u2019 leadership programs.<\/p>\n
Similar to what Chakrabortty has found in the 14 years since graduating from high school, Bayside High School teacher and workshop adviser Ashley Williamson hopes the leadership lessons learned in high school will be ones students apply throughout their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, these workshops will ignite a lifelong love of leadership, and this passion will carry on through college, the military or the career field in the life of the student,\u201d Williamson said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMany of our past student leaders have come back to serve the school system or the community in general that has provided them with so much,\u201d Williamson continued. \u201cIt is a\u00a0nice to see my student leaders come back to Virginia Beach and serve as business owners, doctors, teachers, school administrators, military personnel and\u00a0lawyers just to name a few\u00a0in this great community.”<\/p>\n