Many students may be unaware of the broad scope of the Peer Leadership Program and think of it as being limited to the freshmen outreach sessions and Peer Leadership Olympics involving the peer leaders and freshmen advisories. However, these aspects of the program are far from the most significant part of the Peer Leadership program. The class that accompanies the Peer Leadership program teaches the peer leaders about leadership values that are applied in the outreach sessions; however, the audience of these lessons has in the past been limited to the freshmen and seniors in the program. Until this year. With the departure of Coach Hernandez from Newman, the new leadership team of the Peer Leadership program was given an opportunity to make some changes to the program’s curriculum to better suit the new leaders and their goals as instructors.

When Mr. Causey was asked to assist Mrs. McCormick in leading the program at the end of last year, he saw a unique opportunity to reinvigorate the program with new ideas about what it means to be an active leader. Something Mr. Causey observed about the Newman community was the irregularity with which we discuss our Core Values of honesty, kindness, respect, and responsibility. These aspirational ideals, which we claim to be the core of our community, were only discussed at the beginning of the school year or in response to some event or crisis. This was disconcerting to Mr. Causey, but even more troubling was the lack of interest expressed by students in discussing these values.

When contemplating how he might go about crafting a solution to this shortcoming, Mr. Causey wanted the students addressing students to be the central focus. More importantly, he wanted the solution to be both intriguing and relatable to the students. The Peer Leadership Core Value Speaker Series accomplishes all of these goals. These speeches provide the peer leaders with the unique opportunity to reflect on their time at Newman and offer advice to others through their various experiences. The administrators hope for these speeches will build a greater sense of community within Newman and maintain a constant dialogue about our core values.