Student engagement is broken into four levels, based on the number of years he/she has attended Michigan Student Leadership Camp. Each level has a unique curriculum targeting specific areas of leadership development, regardless of a student’s age or prior experience:
Level One (1st Year students) – Exploration
Most of our campers will begin at level one with no prior Leadership Camp experience. Our first year curriculum, or “Level One” camp focuses around a central theme of GROW. Growth is an agile and comprehensive concept that can be adaptive to any and all life scenarios. Here, campers will focus on the growth of not only their leadership skills and abilities, but personal growth as well. In order to truly understand what it takes to lead, we must all truly understand ourselves. Throughout the week, students will work to “build a leadership toolbox” filled with techniques, strategies and concepts that they can use to progress their own organization, school, community and everyday life.
Activities will occur within the council, within an all-camp setting, as well as in formal and informal settings. Striving to reach all students with different learning styles, students in the first year curriculum will see leadership concepts presented through experiential activities, guest speakers, peer presentations, interactive media, and even in one-on-one conversation. All-camp activities such as MOGA (Most Outrageous Group Activities), personal reflection and action planning, the Mega Mixer as well as our Leadership: Center Stage and final evening celebration round out a week that student leaders will never forget.
Level Two (2nd Year students) – Growth
When campers return for a second year, many will return with stories of success and triumph, as well as a renewed spirit coming into the council setting. Our Level Two staff will challenge students, with experiences that many students were not anticipating, thus allowing them to return to the “brink” of their comfort zone, where personal growth truly occurs. The second year curriculum revolves around concepts of personal assessment, teaching students to take their leadership skills to the next level and ultimately evolve as a leader. Our goal is that students will bring back the stories and successes since their first camp experiences, and we will use our small and large group time to evolve their capacity that students have in our organizations, schools, and communities. We will evolve their own thought process behind what success looks like, and how they determine their own path for a successful future. Students will work on the difference between a belief and a passion, and how to evolve that passion to action.
Just like the first year, the Level Two curriculum is supported by a team of passionate student leadership experts from all over Michigan and beyond. The activities will ask students to be reflective and in-depth within their own self-discovery, but will be balanced out by other fun and interactive team activities. Level two councils will participate in many all-camp activities, such as the Mega Mixer, Leadership: Center Stage, and our daily MOGA (Most Outrageous Group Activity).
Level Three (3rd Year students) – Evolve
Students who return to camp for a third year know that leadership is a life(style) worth living. Becoming a master of any art form takes practice and leadership is no different. The Level Three team is comprised of leadership experts who have demonstrated track records of leadership beyond the scope of high school, therefore serving as mentors and role models for those looking at applying leadership past the realm of high school.
Level Three students will be looked to in order to set the tone for the rest of the camp, as they have the opportunity to mentor hundreds of students who are experiencing what they have experienced in the past. Part of L3 registration includes payment for each student’s access to the online Student LPI 360 assessment. Utilizing this assessment tool, students will gain a more holistic picture of how they currently approach and react to various scenarios and how observes rate their leadership skill sets. This data allows our students to take the next step in analyzing their own strengths and weaknesses to become stronger, better rounded leaders.
They will also have an opportunity to model and support all-camp activities, and will be utilized in projecting servant leadership for those activities planned by students in other levels. Those who complete the third year of Summer Leadership Camp are among some of the best trained student leaders in the state, region, and nation – we will continue to encourage and support them to move their skills to action whenever possible.
Level Four (4th Year students) – Lifelong Application
Students who return to camp for a fourth and final year are of the highest caliber of student leaders, with a demonstrated commitment to making a difference in their schools, organizations, and community. The focus is set on the application of skillsets throughout all stages of our student’s schoolwork, careers and relationships ahead. This approach combines the concepts that they have collected over the years and move these concepts into action following curricular lesson planning in the areas of Employability and workplace skills, Innovative Leadership, Ethical Leadership, Building a Positive Reputation and lifelong leadership applications.
Level Four campers will be prepared for life after high school with resources and skills far ahead of their peers. Here, we finalize their transition from student, to leader, and ultimately, to an outstanding, productive member of their community.
Leadership Councils:
Campers are grouped into clusters of students called “councils.” Each council is assigned a color identity for the week, and will learn to function as a well-oiled machine within the rest of the Camp structure. Councils will go through activities together, eat meals together, and share thoughts with each other as they debrief and process each experience. Councils focus on team building from the ground up, as students are incorporated from all different involvements, backgrounds, activities, cities, and schools represented in a group of 15-21. Councils are led by two MASC/MAHS Student Leadership staff members called a JC (junior counselor), a highly trained and experienced college student facilitator, as well as one SC (senior counselor), a college graduate with a background in teaching leadership in education, business, or non-profit settings. There also will be other staff members students will interact with, including the camp core team (directors and captains of curriculum and activities) as well as the “A-Team” which focuses on bringing awesome experiences and activities to our camp as a whole.