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Area students learn skills at first NHS Leadership Day

About 150 students on Wednesday gathered at Crossroads Church for the first National Honor Society and Student Council Leadership Day. 

Students from multiple area high schools attended small group sessions on leadership topics, played icebreaker games and listened to keynote speaker Preston Smith.

Carissa Blizzard, NHS adviser at Albert Lea High School this year, organized the event.

“We have all come together to just teach and empower the next generation of leaders from our schools,” she said. 

Blizzard added she hopes Leadership Day becomes an annual event with the goal to eventually make it a big southern Minnesota gathering.

“I hope that these students realize that we see them, and that they are heard, and that they see that we are investing in them and into their future, and they take some part of this leadership conference into their future,” she said.

High school students, she explained, tend to get a reputation as being hard to deal with. However, she hopes that Leadership Day can help combat this idea. 

“We have some really great leaders at the high school,” she said. “When I look around this room, I really see the best of the best that Albert Lea has to offer.”

Blizzard also said she was excited to get Smith as the keynote speaker as he graduated from ALHS and is now a professional motivational speaker.

Students participated in small group sessions in the morning. There were six held in total and students could choose which three they wanted to attend based on their interests. 

Andrew Tscholl, a junior, said he learned a lot about being a leader during his time at the event. He especially enjoyed a small group session he attended called “How to Motivate the Unmotivated,” led by Kevin Gentz, a math teacher and coach at ALHS.

“I’ve just learned how to be a leader while also respecting people’s space and not bossing people around,” Tscholl said. “And also just how to be self-motivated.”

Calleigh Noble, a junior at Albert Lea High School, attended a session called “Mental Health in Leadership,” led by Brittany Roberts, a social worker.

“I learned about how mental health is a big part of everyone’s lives and how you can really work through it with leadership,” Noble said. She also attended sessions on working with difficult people and the importance of finding causes you are passionate about.

Following small group sessions and lunch, students gathered in the church’s sanctuary to hear the keynote speech by Smith.

“For our time together now, I want to encourage you and make you feel loved …” said Smith. “… Every single person in this room is a leader.”