As a response to the high demand for more opportunities to celebrate and learn about Wilde Lake’s diversity from the students who attended the student voices discussion on November 14, the SGA put together a leadership conference during school on December 14.

Students who attended the student voices discussion on November 14 were coming up with new ways to make Wilde Lake more inclusive and an idea that kept arising was having another discussion during the school day.

SGA took this into consideration and created the Leadership Conference. They made it into an in-school field trip so more students could attend.

The leadership conference was made up of about 60 students who were selected by their teachers or are leaders of clubs and organizations at Wilde Lake.

“We decided to have the conference to foster a sense of unity among the students. Our goal is to get the students talking and actually start planning next steps to make positive changes within the school,” said SGA President Misbah Farooqi.

At the leadership conference, students were put into several groups and discussed problems at Wilde Lake and how to make the school more diverse and inclusive. They were prompted with discussion questions such as “How can the SGA partner with student leaders and clubs to increase school spirit and unity?” and “How can we encourage more students to be involved in the school community?”

Students also got a chance to hear from Calvin Ball, a Council Member of Howard County. He shared that he made history when he was not only the youngest to be elected to the county council but was also the first black male chairman in the county.

He wanted to motivate students to get involved and he felt like everyone at the leadership conference “will be leaders in the future,” said Ball.

“I thought it was a good idea because there are a lot of clubs and organizations at Wilde Lake that should work together,” said Michael Boyer. “I think it was really beneficial for us to talk about ways to improve our school community.”

Several administrators attended, including Principal LeMon. “I’m glad we had this because we like students incorporating their ideas of what they think Wilde Lake needs. We should try to plan to have more events like this later this year and for the years to come,” he said.