Shelley Cheng: The Importance of Establishing Student Leadership

SMAS 2018-2019 Student Council gave an outstanding presentation at the CCAE 2019 Bay Section Conference. The title of their presentation was "Expanding Leadership Opportunities for Students."   Here is Shelley Cheng's section about student leadership.

Importance of Establishing Student Leadership

In the Adult School

Morning Student Council President
Shelly Cheng

Good morning, everyone, my name is Shelley Cheng. I am a student at San Mateo Adult School and also president of the morning student council.

Our team would like to thank you for giving us the chance to present “Expanding Leadership Opportunities for students” at San Mateo Adult School.

Over the course of this presentation, I shall be speaking in the first part about “the Importance of the establishing of the student leadership in our school.”

What is student leadership?

Alt Text:  Photo of SMAS staff and students in red

When we refer to leadership ,we usually define it with such words as, cooperative, supportive, creative, confident, responsible, guided, and active. But when I seriously thought about and studied the leadership projects provided by our school, I found that we have a common and also unique definition of it:

• We use actions to set examples

• We challenge the status quo and improve our communication skills

• We make sure everyone can have a vision of a better future

• We cultivate cooperation and build mutual trust

• We establish an excellent community culture

• And, we Inspire students to get involved

So How does our school expand leadership opportunities for students?

San Mateo Adult School provides many projects to turn these abstract leadership concepts into living, valuable and actionable approaches, and our team today will provide more information about these programs.

These activities not only provide students with a development of interest, creating a special space, but also foster opportunities for independent thinking and resilience, as well as opportunities for students to develop and enhance our leadership, bringing it to the broader stage outside our school in the community.

Many students, including me, through bridge-building and continuous efforts, turn our passion into ideas, recruit small partners, become servant leaders, and give back to our school and community, all while gaining experience and improving our leadership skills.

Why is student leadership important in the Adult school?

According to Timothy R. Clark, a management expert “Leadership is an applied discipline, not an illusory concept.” Yes, it is science that can be proved by theory and practice. Master this discipline and apply it better, “We will have more opportunities to pursue progress, overcome setbacks, change lives and benefit all things.”

As adult students, we all have a common goal when we choose to study in an Adult School; that is we hope we can have a better future and lives.

Adult education schools have turned this amazing desire into reality.

In today’s society, at our school, leadership isn’t minority behavior, but a skill that everyone needs to master. We must learn to lead ourselves and others rather than lazily relying on the leadership of others. Sometimes, we lack the confidence to reach into our greatness.

But, the good news is, by participating in these projects provided by our school, we find that we are not as weak in leadership as we think. More leadership potential, our genes have already carried enough potential to make us leaders, and we have countless leadership treasures waiting to be discovered. It is time to dig them out.

Over the course of this presentation our team will detail the leadership opportunities we are provided at San Mateo Adult School, including the Student Council, Student Ambassador program, Health and wellness program,  ESL City Government Academy, School Clubs, and Community Volunteering. At the end we will leave time for questions and answers.

Now let me introduce Carlos Diaz who will speak about the student council leadership.