Leadership: MCHS

Maria Carillo students at Homecoming ( Rheya Bushan/ The Puma Prensa)

Written By: Wyett Pinney, Photo Editor

The shining lights, the booming music, the roulette table, the many dancing in the dark ambiance, the endless line for the photo booth—this is the heart of Maria Carrillo High School’s Homecoming Dance. Taught by Natasha Deakins and Trevor Brady, Leadership works on everything, from the Homecoming dance and the Halloween costume contest to the canned food drive and campus decorations.

This class lets students “be part of the school community” and “influence it,” says Leadership sophomore Ricardo Oseguera. Students help with dances, events, and fundraisers, with most of the work coming from in-class planning time.

This in-class time also helps in building an essential skill for students: project planning. Deakins says that “so many details come into play” for project planning, and although the events are student-made, the teachers work with students by giving them support and “helping them learn the planning process.” This process can take many forms and adapt to how students want to work on different events. For some students, like Gabriel Goodrich, a sophomore, it’s “really hands-on,” while for others like junior Kira Kingston, it can take the form of making “a lot of videos and online posters.” All the different avenues of Leadership usually have the same goal: to increase participation in school events.

All these create the same thing: they “unite the campus and provide activities that engage students and build a sense of community,” as Deakins says. In addition to contributing to the school community and environment, Leadership is also an “opportunity to give students a voice on campus.”  

They are dedicated to creating better versions of pre-existing events and coming up with new ideas. “We’re always in class trying to figure out what we should do next,” said sophomore Luka O’Keefe. For years, the Leadership class has been striving to “go big,” as Brady shares, and break more attendance records with future events. Just like the canned food drive that just occurred, breaking many school records with its levels of donations, or Homecoming that keeps breaking attendance records.

Leadership's funds come from ASB​​, $24.50 of which goes towards them. ASB costs $30 dollars a year but makes most home games free and gives discounts on tons of other events. For the students and teachers, however, it makes the class and everything it does for the community possible.

There are four periods of Leadership, making it easy to fit into student schedules. For which period it uses it is “generated by student schedules,” says Brady, meaning that there is a third, fourth, fifth and sixth period. It’s organized this way to make sure that students are always available to contribute to the school in some way.

“It’s changed dramatically over the last three years” says art teacher Tom Laughlin, now there's “something going on at school everyday,” Pre-covid events had lower attendance rates, so now the new takes on events  “motivate kids to get out and do more… to meet each other,” and that's why newer events are constantly breaking school records. He continues to say that this growth in the scale of Leadership has “impacted the culture of the school, making it a lot more social,”  and it has had a positive effect on the community in the form of exciting events.

From bouncing on inflatables at the carnival in the spring to helping give cans to those in need, Leadership is an integral pillar of the campus, creating all the good and memorable moments that last far beyond high school.