RICHARD NAVA
Staff Writer
Strengthening lives for purpose, service and what was that other one? While Pepperdine students are constantly searching for ways to better the world, feed the hungry and serve the masses, they may be neglecting an area of service that the world truly does need. Project Lead attempts to answer this need while helping students ready themselves for lives of fulfillment in various respects.
Project Lead is the newest alternate spring break program at Pepperdine that focuses on students developing leadership skills while reaching out and offering their wisdom to students across the state and, soon, across the country.
The students involved went on a five-day road trip during which they held a workshop at a high school in a different city every day. In total, the students hit schools in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento. The workshops were designed to help students address problems in their high schools and figure out how they, as leaders, could solve them.
“There was a lot of interest in the program, and it was a great success,” said Kerri Heath, Student Leadership Development Coordinator at Pepperdine. “It’s important for students to know that service doesn’t always have to look a certain way.”
Heath helped make Project Lead a reality, along with Leadership Fellow, Kevin Mills.
“One of the great things about my job is that I get to dream up ways to help students become better leaders,” Heath said. “All students are emerging leaders.”
Heath originally brought the idea of a leadership project to Mills, who in turn gave it an added twist by shaping it after the Road Trip Nation program. Through the Road Trip Nation program, people travel the nation to hear and share stories of experience, being taken out of their comfort zone. After brainstorming and further developing the idea, the two decided to start a program in which Pepperdine students would interview prominent leaders in the state of California, and travel to various high schools to hold workshops with younger students on how they, themselves, can become stronger leaders.
Mills, a 2007 Seaver graduate who plans on attending law school, said he hopes students will learn they can be servants and leaders with a purpose. He stated that in any job he has, his major career goal is to be a leader in that field.
Junior Jordan Watson said he shares that dream. Watson is double majoring in religion and speech communication and hopes to pursue a career as a youth minister. Watson stated that, when he heard about the project, he knew it was something he wanted to be a part of.
“I got an e-mail that said I had been recognized as a leader on campus and the whole trip just seemed tailor-made for me,” Watson said.
Watson explained that each team of two students was in charge of one city. Each team had to plan the high schools they would go to, the leaders in the community they would interview, the route to get there and the lodging.
“Basically we all called up our friends, family and even alumni in the area to see if they could put us up for the night,” Watson said. “It was really cool to stay with people we didn’t know who just opened up their homes to us.”
Watson said the most rewarding part of the experience was seeing the high school students realize they could make a difference.
Watson was one of numerous students involved in Campus Ministries, SGA and other on-campus groups who was e-mailed with the invitation to apply. The result, according to Watson, made for a wonderfully diverse group of students he admits is rare at Pepperdine.
Sophomore Kamron King is an example of that diversity. While Watson plans on taking his religion degree and using it for leadership, King is a biology major who plans on going to medical school. King says he will definitely be participating in Project Lead in the years to come.
“The experience is so rewarding,” King said. “Being a part of changing kids’ lives and seeing the immediate result of your work really drives me.”
Both students say they will continue to be involved with Project Lead and hope the program expands. Heath stated she hopes to have three groups next year, two of which will be out of state.
“We’ve learned what works and what doesn’t for next year,” said Heath, who also hopes to develop themes for the groups. “I’d like to set up trips that are geared toward certain majors — like, a trip that focuses on entertainment for communication students.”
However it develops and grows, Project Lead is certainly a program that has many students excited about becoming leaders, no matter where the road leads.
03-20-2008