Leaders from Donald Trump to the average business owner need necessary skills, such as confidence, accountability, and intuition. These are not skills that leaders pick up overnight though, and that’s where the Chick-Fil-A Leadership Academy comes into play.

“[I] like to give back to the community and help others with a group of people that have the same goal,” sophomore Emelia Gapp said.

The leader’s approach to teaching are the three E’s: engage students with what their interests are, expose students to new ideas, and equip students with the necessary tools to start their leadership journey.

“[The Chick Fil A leadership academy] is a high school leadership program that teaches the fundamentals of leadership through the qualities of impact through action,” history teacher and sponsor Aaron Buck said.

The leaders and sponsors from high schools all over the country believe that the world needs more leaders that can impact their local communities. They think that high school students are the key to this. In a normal meeting, students in the CFA Leadership Academy participate in 30-minute labs. These labs teach them the necessary leadership skills that they will use to start student-run projects that impact their communities. These leader labs prepare the students for their impact project in March, in which they take the skills that they have learned and help their community in one big service project.

“I enjoy being in the Leader Academy because it gives me opportunities to give back to the community in ways I couldn’t do on my own,” junior Alyson Phinney said.

The students who are in the Mill’s chapter of the CFA leadership academy meet once a month in room 846.  “Leadership is something that the world needs every generation to have. Starr’s Mill is full of people who are leaders in their own right but may not have had the opportunity to act on it,” Buck said. “This is a perfect pairing that is going to benefit both the school and the community at large.”

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?” This is what students in the CFA leadership academy strive to answer.

Students can see Aaron Buck in room 846 for more information on how to join the CFA Leadership Academy.