Community leaders participate in panel with Lenihan students
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Students in the Ricochet leadership group picked the brains of local leaders on Thursday afternoon as part of the group's annual community panel at Lenihan Intermediate School.
Ricochet is an education-based initiative where students take part in leadership training and service projects throughout the year to help build effective communication and organizational skills.
The panel on Thursday included business executives, government officials, educators, and community advocates, who shared their insights and experiences on how to lead and inspire change in their respective fields as they answered students' questions about leadership in Marshalltown.
As high school senior and former Ricochet member Yessenia Alvarez Zamora said during the panel, being a leader is not always as straightforward as one may initially think.
"When I was your age, I thought leadership was a decision, or a name or 'Okay, the first thing I need to do is get into this cool thing I heard about called Ricochet, and then I'm automatically a leader,'" Alvarez Zamora said. "But what I learned is that a lot of times, that has to be something you take out of the classroom, out of your biweekly meetings that you have... Leadership won't always be a title, and it will oftentimes be a moment that not many people might notice but the person that you're helping will."
Maria Gonzalez, an advocate at Immigrants Allies of Marshalltown and coordinator with Heart of Iowa Big Brothers Big Sisters, shared her own leadership journey as an immigrant in Marshalltown and her experiences facing challenges due her background.
"Those were things that I let personally affect me and, in fact, the person that I wanted to be, until I came to a realization that my story is mine. Nobody else owns it. Nobody else can share it the way that I can, and that empowered me to continue to share who I was and what I do for the community," Gonzalez said. "I think from being able to share that, that has empowered others that look like me, or that have come to this country like myself, and are willing to serve the community with leadership and with power."
Dan Terrones, Dean of Students at Marshalltown High School, echoed Gonzalez's thoughts about the path to leadership not always being smooth, and he stressed the importance of communication.
"In our lives, we are going to be misunderstood," Terrones said. "Even if we are the best communicators, the best thinkers, there's just going to be times when you misunderstood and there are gonna be times when it's not going to necessarily be appropriate for you to defend yourself... Sometimes we have to bite her tongue. We have to hold that, but then hope that in some manner, we still try to communicate the best way that we can."
MCSD Superintendent Theron Schutte added that for him, having a central goal or core objective helps him to be a more effective leader and make more holistic decisions in his position.
"You have to have kind of a guiding mission or principle that can help direct you in making the best decision possible. Because a lot of times whatever decision you make as a leader, not one hundred percent of people are going to be happy. For us in education, the guiding principle is, first and foremost, what's in the best interest of students?" Schutte said. "A good leader is going to take input from everybody to try to figure out what the best decision is. You're going to get praise and recognition for that, but you have to be willing to accept the fact that when things don't go as well, regardless of why, they're also the one receiving the heat or the criticism on that as well."
After the panel ended, students were treated to a graduation ceremony with friends and family to cap off a year filled with leadership experiences.
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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611
or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.