2016 Education

Page 34

2016 EDUCATION MAGAZINE

LINCOLN DAILY

NEWS.COM

March 1, 2016

we identified as potential student leaders and sent

them to a half-day workshop at Sacred Heart-

Griffin High School.” Morgan estimated that

probably thirty other schools participated in the

program that day. He continued, “They came back

and those forty kids are our leaders.”

Meanwhile, he goes on to talk about how the

students were split up into small groups later at

Mount Pulaski High School. “We’ve taken the

freshmen, sophomores and juniors and divided

them into four groups. So you’ve got four

freshmen groups, four sophomore groups and four

junior groups. We only have two senior groups

partly because of two reasons. We lose a chunk

of kids for co-op in the afternoon but we also use

about twenty seniors as our group leaders. In

every one of those groups there is a senior that’s

helping lead the group. So every group has two

student leaders. So ideally, the freshman group has

a senior and a freshman leader in each group. For

the first semester we did this every Friday. Every

Friday afternoon, we took fifteen minutes and they

watched this five minute video and they spent the

next five to ten minutes discussing the video.”

Morgan is very pleased with how well-received

the videos have been and the impact the program

has had on the students. “It’s been very effective.

It’s really good stuff and they actually got to meet

the guy who’s running this whole thing,” said the

principal of approximately 170 students.

Mike Smith influences MPHS to create the

“Legacy Groups”

The guy who is running the whole thing is Mike

Smith, a professional youth speaker and the host

of The Harbor. According to the Jostens website,

Smith “works with young people from all walks of

life, encouraging them to pursue their passions and

live

out their dreams.” Morgan was as equally

impressed with Smith and his message as the

Mount Pulaski High School students were.

Smith offered up this life-changing theory that

immediately struck a chord with Morgan, “When

they went to visit this presentation, he kept talking

about legacy. What is your legacy? What are you

going to leave behind?” The students from Mount

Pulaski were so impressed that they decided on

the perfect name for their groups. “So we call our

groups “Legacy Groups,” stated Morgan.

Smith introduces the program in one of the videos

by saying, “My name is Mike Smith and for the

past five years I’ve had one focus. To travel

around the country and inspire young people to

leave a legacy behind. As I’ve walked around

hundreds of campuses and spoken to nearly a

million students I’ve noticed something’s missing.

It’s not enough for us to focus on test scores and

grades and GPAs and weighted classes. We’ve

got to challenge young people to think about the

character that they’re developing each and every

day. And that’s what The Harbor aims to do. The

Harbor is a free, online video resource that

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