New program at WHES hopes to create stronger students and leaders

Using the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” to build better schools.

July 21, 2014; 8:55 AM • by Richard Hayes

The I Am A Leader Foundation has only been around for a few years but in that time the foundation has given away close to $15 million in grants to nearly 350 schools throughout the country and only 4 in Virginia. The goal of the foundation is give students and teachers the tools to unlock the leadership potential in students.

Westover Hills and G.H. Reid Elementary schools will begin participating in the “Leader in Me” program when the next school year begins in September.

“It offers a more focused, intentional way of moving toward what we want to do,” said Westover Hills Principal Virginia Loving. “We’re already doing some of this, but we need something that would bring us all together.”

The program is based on the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. It was created in 1999 at A.B. Combs Elementary School in Raleigh, N.C., where the principal, faced with the threat of closing her underperforming school, used the book to develop a school-wide program that integrated leadership development into everything at the school.

To help implement the program Westover Hills received approximately $43,000 from the I Am a Leader Foundation. This program perviously has been implemented in Cary and Fisher Elementary Schools.

This grant is the result of over two years of hard work by Principal Loving and the WHES staff and hopefully the students and the neighborhood will reap the benefits.

Image: I Am A Leader Foundation