Foundations of Leadership:
Knowing Self and Others
What is in this course
This course is for you to learn about yourself. You have everything you need to love, take care, and nourish yourself. In the process of self discovery, you will find the tools to help you in social situations to understand your reactions, to pause, and to have some guidance on next steps.
The first three weeks will be focused on Self. Diving into techniques to take care of you, finding your safe space, and the things that bring you joy. The classes will also include discussions about challenges you are facing in your everyday life, creating space for you to be heard, seen, and validated. We will have time for discussion to problem-solve or unpack difficult topics like mental health, climate anxiety, feminism, and social injustice. These classes will be tailored to the needs or wants of the group.
The last three weeks will be focused on “The Self in Others”. Diving into effective communication, speaking up and speaking out techniques, and identifying ourselves in others. We will go through various exercises to find our own self-respect and how to communicate and share it with others. This will touch on speaking up about important topics, setting boundaries, and communication styles and techniques. The final outcome is for each individual to feel like they can find validation within and begin to help others see it within themselves too.
Tentative schedule
Starting the week of August 1st
Week One - Groundwork. We will take some time to get to know each other, what our interests are, what we are afraid or nervous about, and what people are most excited for in the upcoming weeks
Week Two - Healthy Ecosystems. We will dive into a practice to identify our safe spaces by naming the things that bring us happiness, fulfillment, and celebration.
Week Three - Loving You. Our next activity will be focused on naming our dark sides, what we love about ourselves, and the person we want to be. Through the exercise, we will find four words that remind us of our light in the dark.
Week Four - Respect. In finding our self love and safe spaces, we are ready to name our needs for how to give ourselves self respect, and others. This will begin the second half of the sessions on how to respect ourselves and others.
Week Five - Speaking Up. We will identify some issues that participants care about. We will identify why the care, what the issue is, and what they can do about it. This will provide a solution based way of speaking out against important issues.
Week Six - Closing and Celebration. We will create a final closing ceremony to share the top things everyone has learned, complement everyone on their growth, and provide a parting gift.
What is the time commitment?
Your life is busy! I want to make this course doable. All I am asking of you is one Zoom call a week, plus a little extra time you give to yourself to digest the information and integrate it into your life. Depending on the location of the participants, we might do some in-person gatherings.
I know how hard it is to balance schoolwork, sports, and whatever else you have in a week. This course will be very accommodating for students. Expect a weekly email before your class with a Zoom link for an hour and a half call, and all the information you’ll need for the call.
As I’m envisioning this course, we will meet once a week with 3-5+ young women in 8th grade and High School. Class size will be limited to 3-5, so that we can have a truly meaningful discussion. There may be two groups.
That’s it! Two hours of your time.
When you sign up, I will share my personal contact information for any extra support that you might need, as well as send any helpful resources, books, movies, or inspirations that I think will help the group.
How much does it cost?
$225
I want to make this course affordable and accessible so I have set the price for 6 sessions at $225 for the classes and my time, preparing for each class and follow up. I don’t want the cost to stop you from signing up, If you need tuition support or want to do payment installments, contact me and we will figure it out.
What are my qualifications for leading this course?
I want to support you as you navigate and choose the right path for your education and self care. To be honest, my early teen years were really difficult (and beautiful when I got better at recognizing the abundance in my life), but I wished I had more guidance and support with juggling sports, school work, and social life. I found my support system through Earth Guardians, an environmental leadership organization, in the second semester of freshman year of high school.
There are many things I learned to love and respect, which helped me build healthy habits. I want to teach you how to:
Take care of yourself
Stress management. How to balance your schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and social life
Use social media in a healthy, effective, and useful way
Cultivate healthy relationships with your friends & family
Identify and practice healthy boundaries in relationships
Discern when and how to ask for help
Use your teen years to your advantage so that you get the most out of the whole experience
Successfully complete high school with an understanding of who you are and what you want to do (whatever that means!)
Define what success is, for yourself, based on your values
I don’t have all of the answers but I do have tools that I want to give you. I want you to cultivate new friendships and make lifelong friends who you can rely on, to support you wherever you are. I want you to have a mentor, a healthy support system, and a foundation for your high school experience to be the best it can be!