Last week, along with eight other student leaders at Millbrook, I had the privilege of attending the Interhigh Leadership Conference featuring Mike Smith and The Harbour. The conference was held at the new Apex Friendship High School, and student leaders from all over Wake County attended. The representatives from Millbrook included Jenna McMains, Katie Tart, Alex LaRocca, Brooke Bennett, Bridgett Rogers, Cameron Riddick, Madison Rivera, and Arianna Rosario. Hosted by Jostens, the event featured motivational speaker and self-professed ‘professional teenager’  Mike Smith. Smith was not your typical motivational speaker, however. His speech was not pompous or pretentious, but rather an honest and candid account of his experience in becoming a leader and giving back to the community.  He used no visual aids, but listening to his story was far from dull. The audience was enthralled as he spoke of growing up in a small town and being changed upon befriending a boy who was bullied and how that catalyzed his quest to make positive change. It was inspiring to hear how that one act of kindness grew into Smith being the CEO of two non-profit organizations and the owner of four, including Skate For Change, an organization wherein young people skateboard and deliver supplies to homeless people.

What made this conference so worthwhile, however, was not simply listening to one man’s achievements, but in making the connections to how us students can do the same in our own communities. Throughout his speech Smith emphasized how change happens in steps. He stressed that service should be done out of interest rather than obligation. One thing he advocated in particular was to consider what we wanted our legacy to be. So he had us get with the people from our school and brainstorm what we wanted our legacy within the school to be and how to make it happen. Senior Madison Rivera said, “I think my favorite part was at the very end when I got the chance to meet all the different leaders from Millbrook and we collaborated together to try to leave a better legacy.”

Having been so inspired by the presentation, us Millbrook students were eager to make positive changes here at school. Smith had talked about isolation between social groups being a huge problem with young people, and we all agreed and decided to tackle this issue together. “During the conference, the other Millbrook attendees and I talked and decided that we were going to form a board of sorts to unify Millbrook so, for example, people in  DECA would know about and attend the senior nights of Volleyball. The goal is basically so all the students at Millbrook can be more involved with each other,” said senior Jenna McMains.

We all learned a lot at the conference, the most important being is that there are many different ways to be a leader. We do not all have to lead or achieve in the same way. It is not like school or a grade. “Life doesn’t have a scantron,” Smith said to us. Simply do your best to make the world a better place.