41 students experience Fort Couch Leadership Academy
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Forty-one rising seventh and eighth-grade students recently spent a summer week developing leadership skills while serving others in the community. The annual Fort Couch Leadership Academy was held from July 22-26, 2024. Throughout the week, students worked individually and collaboratively through tasks that challenged them to define their own concept of what leadership looks like and sounds like to them.
The Leadership Academy was facilitated by teachers who guided students in exercises of teamwork and reflection to promote a greater application of their leadership skills. Fort Couch facilitators included Mike DaVia, Eliza Luxbacher, Erin Bruce and Dan Zelenski.
This year, the program partnered with the South Hills Interfaith Movement (SHIM) and the Washington & Jefferson Center for Energy Policy & Management.
“We feel that our service-learning experiences are impactful ways for students to model and deepen their appreciation for the values of leadership that we explore throughout the week,” Mr. DaVia said. “In both experiences, students learned about the mission and values of each organization as they explored what service leadership looks like and sounds like.”
Students organized supplies and created donation bags that included materials to encourage mindful energy use. At SHIM, students worked to beautify a community garden that will be featured in an upcoming Community Day celebration.
“We believe that we learn from doing as well as from working together as a team,” Ms. Luxbacher said. “Our hopes for our students are to experience the impact of supportive teamwork and to feel the joy that creating a positive impact can bring to our local and larger communities.”
The Leadership Academy’s core values include teamwork, productivity, openness, integrity, honesty, excellence, risk-taking, courage, commitment and reflection.
“Our aspiration for the week is that students can acknowledge, define, and exemplify the core tenants of leadership which will, in turn, enhance their academic and social-emotional growth as middle school students,” Mr. DaVia said.
Upper St. Clair’s Leadership Academy currently offers middle and high school students the opportunity to learn and develop leadership concepts and practices. Established in 2010, the week-long summer program was nationally recognized with a Magna Award from the National School Boards Association’s magazine, American School Board Journal, in 2013.
- Fort Couch