Samantha Brennan Discusses Leadership on Panel at NAIS

Dean of Students and Grade 9 Dean Samantha Brennan shared her experiences developing Rivers’ student leadership program in a workshop at the recent NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) annual convention. Entitled “Creating the Next Generation of Leaders: 3 Schools, 3 Visions, 3 Programs and the gcLi,” the workshop was an opportunity for participants from schools around the country to hear how student leadership initiatives can be successfully incorporated into a school’s culture.

Brennan began her talk with a brief overview of the origins of Rivers program, saying she initially explored the idea of purposefully teaching leadership after attending a summer program at the Garner Carney Leadership Institute in Colorado. The institute’s core tenet is that leadership CAN be taught.

“This was not a widely accepted belief at Rivers or in our wider culture at the time, but was something that I had strongly believed for many years,” says Brennan.

She went on to outline the various stages of development of Rivers’ program over the past eight years, from forming a faculty Leadership Committee, to defining leadership as an institution, to working with faculty to incorporate leadership training within the existing curriculum and through daily interactions with students.

“Our definition of leadership – of being your best self AND positively influencing others - has helped us articulate the connection between character education and leadership,” says Brennan. “In order to be a leader you need to have strong skills and character but that alone does not make you a leader, it makes you a good or accomplished person. To be a leader you have to USE your skills and your character to positively affect the world around you.”

She explained how the focus then shifted from educating the faculty to impacting the students.

“Once we embraced the concept that all students have the capacity to improve their leadership skills and qualities, we wanted to develop a program that supports every student,” says Brennan. “We focus on identifying “teachable moments” and using effective feedback, a technique that required some training on the part of faculty, but which is now a part of the fabric of faculty-student relationships at Rivers.”

The result has been that while there are still the traditional student leaders who are on the student council, or team captains, or club leaders, there are an equal number of “leaders” do not fit that mold.

“At Rivers, we know that there is a role for students to organize and plan, and these are important leadership skills for sure,” says Brennan. “But we have attempted to create a culture that allows and encourages students to tackle adaptive challenges – ones that do not have a prescribed plan. Challenges that require a change in perspective or beliefs. Challenges that do not have a known answer. We believe that it is these skills, which can also be taught, that will serve our students well beyond Rivers.”