Together We Lead

Our freshman class put their leadership skills in action during an all-day retreat at Pinecrest Retreat Center. Every SAA freshman takes a semester-long leadership course with the foundational concept that all girls are leaders. The course focuses on three major areas: character, interpersonal skills, and leadership principles and development.

By Dr. Jennifer Lovelace, Director of Leadership 

What better way to practice Freshman Leadership learning and community building than by heading out to Pinecrest Retreat Center on buses for team-building tasks facilitated by our Upper School student leaders?

An essential part of leadership–at any age–is to be able to work with people, whether it’s to problem solve, accomplish a task, or collaborate on a creative project. Our 9th grade girls worked together in small groups to complete “missions” as the SGA officers led the tasks AND the processing of how each freshman girl “showed up” during the task and collaborated to do the work.  

One body. Many parts. 

One class. Many girls.

In the tasks and during chapel time, this field trip theme of “one body” emphasized the importance of both individuality and community. Rudyard Kipling writes in The Jungle Book, “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.” That’s a great leadership mantra. 

Our grounding scripture for the day was from 1 Corinthians 12: 27: “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.” During chapel time, Stella Bounds, SGA Chaplain, led the freshmen through guided meditation and an activity in which they wrote their gifts and strengths on post-it notes and then placed them on the wall in the shape of a cross. The cross serves as a visual reminder that each girl is an important part of the whole, as each of us is an important part of the community of faith.

The field trip was a smash start to the final quarter of the year, and it is only one part of the leadership program, under the guidance of Dr. Lovelace, which focuses on ALL girls and their development as leaders.  

Fun fact: Lucy Cummings, the Director of Pinecrest, is a St. Agnes Alumna from the Class of '79. Ms. Cummings came to campus and trained the student leaders in facilitation and helped Dr. Lovelace to organize the flow of the day.

Enjoy these reflections from our SAA 9th graders about their Leadership Retreat experience: 

• You don't have to be an extremely open and "bold" person to achieve leadership. There are people who always work behind the scenes and that is a form of leadership. Using your voice definitely promotes leadership, but so does working as a team quietly when you are afraid to speak up.
• Seeing classmates and others share things about themselves that they normally wouldn’t allowed me to see a new perspective of leadership. This helped me learn that the outside does not matter, it is what is on the inside that makes you a true leader.
• While doing the shape challenge, I learned that sometimes I need to give other people a chance to share their ideas because not everyone can just say it. I should ask others about their ideas.
• I learned that I had so much fun being with the girls I normally don't spend a lot of time at school with. I wish that I could have gotten more time with my group because I feel like we were all doing the tasks, but at the same time, laughing until our stomachs hurt and having so much fun together.
• I learned that most of the people in my group are able to lead and work together despite whether we were close friends or not.
• I learned that a certain girl in my group that I've never talked to before is really nice.
• One girl that I didn't know that well turned out to be very funny.
• The hardest part was my anxiety about speaking up. I have been this way for as long as I can remember, but I expected this going into certain leadership situations. I challenged myself in numerous ways on the retreat and that made this trip so much more memorable for myself.
• I think that the hardest part for me was the groups. I think the idea of creating new friendships and enhancing your list of friends can be scary because you are welcoming new people into your life, and sometimes welcoming them back to where they were.
• The hardest part for me was patience with my group. It was challenging to not become upset at everyone for not doing something the way I believe it should be done.
• The hardest part for me was the groups. I LOVED how we were able to be with one person we were friends with, but it was hard not knowing so many people.