Sartell High School leaders learning about leadership

On Sunday, January 14th, Sartell High School’s student council members hopped in a big yellow bus and headed up to Alexandria Arrowwood for their annual leadership retreat. They left at 11:00 AM on Sunday with a mind ready for possibilities and returned at 5:00 PM with a mind ready to lead and spread joy throughout all of Sartell High School.

You might be thinking, “Ugh, they probably just listen to speakers and have little meetings about what they learned.” You have no idea… it is far from what you think…

This is what is on the packing list:

• Clothes for one night and two days
• Toiletries
• Board games
• Swimsuit for the water park
• Ice Skates for the ice skating rink
• Snacks to share

It is a weekend with an itinerary full of fun!

Once everyone fled off of the bus, we dropped off our luggage at our townhome, trudged through the snow, and headed to the conference center at the hotel. We all sat in our assigned seats with a bottle of water, notebook, and pencil. To warm everybody up, we played a fun naming game and continued back to our seats. We got right back up and sat in a circle in the center. It is tradition to play a game where you can win a prize. There were about 50 gifts in the center that ranged from things like a candy necklace to a brand new hammock. Basically, you passed a pair of dice and if you roll “doubles” you can pick a prize from the middle. The trick is, you can take more than one if you roll “doubles” again, and after all the presents are gone you are allowed to steal from someone else. Once the timer is up, some are left with 5 gifts, and some are left with zero. However, student council advisor Karrie Fredrickson (or commonly known as “Freddy”) had a lesson tied to this fun activity. As some stood there with five plus gifts, they felt the need to share some of their gifts with others who had none. Naturally, they would give them the gift they didn’t really want. That was a metaphor for how we interact with others. “Are we going to give people our best or our worst, that is up to you.”

After people walked away with their gifts or dignity, we split up into a couple of different groups. The groups were committees for the 2018 Winter Formal Dance: committees such as dance, decorations, food, tickets, and advertising. All of these committees are vital in putting together one of the three most important events of student council.

Right after we split into these committees, our executive board had some events for each of us to participate in. Each had a theme that they deemed as an important component of leadership. They ranged from topics related to discussion over debate, all the way to staring at someone in the eyes for two minutes. However, my personal favorite was a personality test that we did together. After answering a few questions about our personality, we were assigned to a certain color. For whatever color you were, you met up with all who were the same color as you. You talked about your strengths, weaknesses, and the ways you are an asset to the council. At the end, we had a wonderful discussion about each personality and how you need each of these personalities to have a well equip council. 

Whew…break time…

Two hours to go ice skating, go to the waterpark, play games, do homework, chit-chat with your friends, etc. Once 6 o’clock hit, we all piled into one cabin and had some yummy food! After we were done screaming at the Vikings game, we had a karaoke contest, lip-sync battle, and played “Cards Against Student Council.”

After a full day, we all quietly fell asleep in our assigned cabins to rest up for another day of learning about leading.

Touching letters, cool stickers, and recap videos ended the 2018 Sartell High School Leadership Retreat. The last day was full of emotions and a little bit of an urgency to head home. It was the weekend just before finals and a jam-packed student council week, so everyone was a little overwhelmed. However, everyone left smiling, knowing that this was a weekend that they would never forget.

In the words of Karrie Fredrickson: “A single act of kindness has a ripple effect that changes the climate of a school. It is our duty as leaders to recognize the impact of our words and actions to create a climate where every student feels they belong and they matter. That starts with us.”