CHSAA hosts annual Student Leadership Summer Conference

From Friday through Sunday at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center, the Colorado High School Activities Association hosted its annual Student Leadership Summer Conference.

Over 150 student leaders from over 25 schools gathered in Denver to meet one another, exchange ideas and workshop solutions to issues high school communities across the nation are currently facing. For young leaders like rising senior Jakye Nunley, a student leader at Eaglecrest and vice president of the CHSAA state representatives, it was an invaluable opportunity for those in attendance to share one another’s experience, learning and perspective, and to then bring all of that information back to their respective communities.

“I’m a perspective person and I love hearing about the experiences of others,” Nunley said. “That’s what makes me the leader that I am because I try to be mindful of the experience of others. My ideal with leadership is that I’m leading for people that I haven’t met yet or people that I don’t know yet or don’t know that I’m leading for yet. Being here at leadership conferences like this and gathering knowledge makes all the world of difference.”

This year’s conference featured sessions for networking, discussion, group activities and Q&A panels covering such topics as sportsmanship, school spirit and leadership, as well as other presentations from guest speakers. Following a year in which the conference was held virtually because of the global pandemic, Jakye said everyone was thrilled to be back in person in 2022’s meeting of the minds.

“The first one I went to was online and that was OK,” Nunley said. “The whole COVID period was different, but being in person with people and getting to physically be in the presence of so many great leaders who are phenomenal in their school buildings and share the same values as you is really a gift.”

A constructive and enlightening event as always, many of this year’s student leaders noted that they found perhaps the greatest value of the conference in the diverse backgrounds of all the attendees and the opportunity to learn from their counterparts from all over the state.

“It’s really cool because we’re all kind of dealing with the same issues,” rising senior Destiny Valdez of La Veta said. “I just finished talking with a bunch of people and the people from some of these huge schools are dealing with issues like COVID and getting people involved, just like us. I just think it’s really cool that we’re so different but we’re struggling together and getting to the point where we’re trying to figure things out together.”

CHSAA assistant commissioner Rashaan Davis added, “The CHSAA Student Leadership Summer Conference is a great opportunity to bring students from across the state together,” Davis said. “This year, we have had the opportunity to work with students who are attending their first student leadership experience. While they are looking forward to growing the positive culture on their own campus, they are looking forward to meeting other students and experiencing a CHSAA event.

“Our state representatives and advisory committee have gone above and beyond in their work to make this happen. With topics ranging from school spirit to inclusive activities, to growing your personal leadership skills, this conference has something for everyone. As this event continues to grow, I am excited to see how the year goes.”