Update! What The Heck Have We Been Doing This School Year?

The 2012 school year bought forth some new changes to the Student LEADership Board (SLB). With two new Mazzoni employees, Louie Ortiz, Education Manager and Khaliah Pitts, Ally Program Associate ( a brand new position all together), taking over this already existing project there were a few bumps in the road as far as board member recruitment. One student, Caitlyn Ullman, returned as a Senior, and devoted herself fully to the SLB, becoming Co-Chair. She, as the then only student on the board, had a big hand in planning our highly successful first Citywide GSA Meeting of the 2011-2012 school year in late October. It was a packed house at the William Way Community Center, so many students and advisors and community members in attendance that we quickly ran out of chair and even those standing spilled out into the hallway. After this Citywide Meeting, Caitlyn brought to the board another returning member, Max Marton, and a new student, Dalena Nguyen. The power of three was most powerful for the following three months, with each student taking the lead on different projects and offering each other support. Caitlyn and Dalena were highly prevalent in the planning and execution of the second Citywide Meeting in mid-December, which proved that we indeed could provide a consistent crowd of 50­+ people. The two gave a strong presentation of sexuality identity, gender, and personal identity. The meeting brought forth from the attendees an intimacy that surprised us on the board as the audience trusted us and each other to let pour personal stories. Max Marton, in the meantime, was hard at work securing us a space for our upcoming LEAD 2012 conference. And he was so triumphant, with a surprise early morning text confirming his high school, Science Leadership Academy, as the location for the March conference.

And so, this past month, the SLB has moved forward with plans of LEAD and our third Citywide. Even with the meeting falling on the week of finals, we still managed to bring in the same size crowd, comprised 80% of completely new students and represented schools, some of which even travelled by school bus to bring their entire GSA (Lower Merion Township). With these four new represented schools and a victorious DRAG show to promote DRAG History Month, the meeting could have stood as sensational on that alone. But then Dalena came with more good news: another recruit, Masternan Senior Melanie Millwood. Two weeks later Dalena became savior again, bringing on the fifth board member, CAPA Senior Rachel Purdom!

Now with the SLB at a solid and regular attending and dedicated five students, we plunge headfirst into our upcoming projects, the February Citywide Meeting, LEAD 2012, and the June Trans Health Conference that they are offering insight on. With the students taking full lead and responsibility for the outlining of the next Citywide and recruitment for LEAD registrants, we are fully confident in the utter and total success of these further endeavors.

Onward to LEAD!