Leadership & Ethics: Asking Themselves Big Questions

"The future is right now. It is under your feet. You don't become something tomorrow that you weren't working on today." - Dele Liu, Youku director and EHS parent
The EHS Leadership and Ethics program sent four grades’ worth of students in four very different but compelling directions on February 1.

The Class of 2017 was introduced to EHS parent Dele Liu, the director of Youku, China’s predominant video hosting company recently acquired by Alibaba. Seniors LizaBanks Campagna and Lachlan Warrell interviewed Mr. Liu as he shared his personal story and insights about his approach to business, treating others, and his upbeat attitude. He spoke of his struggle growing up with limited access to running water most of his childhood and how this experience gave him so much for which to be grateful.

When asked how he planned for the future, he offered two particularly memorable observations.

"The future is right now. It is under your feet. You don't become something tomorrow that you weren't working on today,” Mr. Liu explained, pointing to Michael Jordan as someone whose success came because of many years of intense dedication and focus.

About making plans, he offered, smiling, "You should plan, but you should know when you do that things will never be the way you planned." He elaborated that while he attributes his good fortune to hard work and a little bit of luck, planning is an essential part of hard work, even if things won’t ever work out quite like the plan.

The Class of 2018 started their day in Pendleton, where Assistant Head for Academics Mary Fielder tapped into one of her areas of expertise and gave the juniors an overview of ethics. What does it mean to “do the right thing?” Should it depend on the situation, or should a core set of values always govern what you do?

The students then headed to classrooms for small group conversation. Armed with new vocabulary, they wrestled through a case study about a car dealership. Each student was faced with the task of having to let go a member of their sales team. Would they let go the top salesperson who has shady character? Their closest friend who fails to sell many cars? The conversations revealed that doing the “right thing” is not always easy or clear. Finally, the students received the results of their Myers Briggs Type Indicator tests. They read through the explanations and then reflected on what it means for themselves as leaders.

Sophomore students separated by gender to dive into their own identities in a different sort of way. Shanterra McBride, life coach and founder of “Marvelous University,” held an interactive session with the girls, leading them through a process of identifying all the ways they put unfair pressures and expectations on themselves.

“You, at your age, have the greatest ability to change the culture of a school,” Ms. McBride told them, urging them to recognize how greatly they underestimate their potential to make a positive impact.

She then helped the girls think about friendships. They discussed what it looks like to treat each other well and how to have the courage to talk to each other when conflict arises. The girls left the session empowered to be positive examples in and among their peers.

"Shanterra McBride reminded me of how amazing it was to be a girl!" Juliet Faris '19 said. "Her talk was not only inspirational but eye opening. Her self-empowerment radiated off of her and went to all of us girls who had the pleasure of listening to her."

Meanwhile, the boys watched a portion of “The Mask You Live In,” a documentary about the pressures and stereotypes that can trap boys from healthy development, and then broke into small groups to discuss their reactions to it. They answered questions such as “What features make up the masculine mask that EHS guys are expected to wear? What traits are discouraged or suppressed?” The adult facilitators helped them think through what it looks like to be true to themselves and to encourage their peers to do the same.

The youngest EHS students spent the day exploring the intricacies of the School’s Honor Code. First, in small groups they were presented with a series of scenarios where an Honor Code violation might have occurred and worked through the challenges faced by the students involved and the students responsible for adjudicating guilt or innocence.

They concluded their afternoon by attending a mock hearing of a violation to see how a scenario might actually play out with the leaders responsible for upholding honor on campus. The goal was to both educate the ninth graders and to demystify the process. Ultimately, the committee exists to educate students and to uphold the standards of honor on our campus, not to “get students in trouble.”

Director of Leadership and Ethics Mimi Schwanda summarized the day: “Wednesday’s programming gave students the opportunity to ask themselves big questions. Who am I? Who do I want to be? How might I best lead my peers, and what do I do when decisions are hard? It is our hope that these conversations will continue around campus as students continue to learn and grow.”

For a complete collection of photos from the day, view below or visit our Flickr site

Leadership & Ethics: February 1, 2017
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