Poudre School District Hosts Student Leadership Event

Over 360 student leaders and advisers from across the Poudre School District gathered today to hear from one of the nation’s top youth motivational speakers, Scott Bakovich. The day was an opportunity to learn leadership skills, network with student leaders from across the district’s seven attending schools, and to share ideas on how to build their school cultures in new and different ways.

Bakovich, who is the face of Envolve Schools, an organization that leads trainings to teach student leadership programs and advisers on how to create the world’s most engaging student activities, led student leaders through multiple teambuilding activities.

The event was put together by Fossil Ridge Assistant Principal and Activities Director, Brad Nye. The idea for today’s conference was born when Nye and other Activities Directors from Poudre School District attended the California Association of Directors of Activities (CADA) State Convention and heard Bakovich present a workshop session.

“Going into this I had no idea what this was going to be, but a couple of hours into this we have already learned so much and I can kind of see the direction its going,” Rocky Mountain High School student leader Ben Harding said. “I really think what we will take back to our school is the mindset we go into our planning our events with, as far as bringing outreach and connect as many groups as possible. I think it’s great that we have every school in the district here, so that it can be a district-wide thing.”

“Student safety and belonging is more important now than ever before,” said Nye. It’s time for us, post Covid, to rethink what student activities and climate and culture activities mean in our buildings. Bringing Scott Bakovich in today is an attempt at two things- helping all our school’s rethink what school events look like, specifically how they can begin increasing the amount of student participation overall, as well as getting our students who are underserved plugged in and involved. Another goal I have is trying to bring together all our high schools, so that we are no longer a district of schools but a true school district, where we are all working together, learning from each other, and creating this opportunity to bring all of our leadership students together for the first time is a great first-step in that direction.”

The school leadership groups in attendance included members of traditional student council classes, peer counselors, Fossil Ridge’s “Ridge Leadership” and “Leadership by Design” classes, Diversity Leadership classes, along with others.