Hello all! As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in a beanbag chair on Day 5 of Leadership Columbus’ Central Ohio Leadership Academy (COLA). I’ll start by giving a little background on what COLA actually is. COLA is a tuition free, 6 day program in the summer for rising juniors and seniors in high school. The goal is to help them develop their own unique leadership along with strengthening their personal development. The way I’ll write this blog is by splitting my experience here into two blogs. The first, this week, will be about how I’ve witnessed the students in my cohort grow. Next week, I will share about how I’ve grown as a leader and person over this week so stayed tuned for that.

In my role at Leadership Columbus, I was fortunate enough that I was asked to help facilitate throughout COLA week. The way COLA is designed is that students are separated into small groups (cohorts). Within these cohorts, we strengthen collaboration, team building, communication, and the overall growth of each student. As a facilitator within my cohort, our job is to help guide these students’ conversations and really get them thinking about why they wanted to be here, what they’re passionate about, and what impact they want to make in the world.

Though it’s not quite over, I have still seen these students grow so much. On the first day, there was a surprising amount of energy with our students. Usually, it takes some getting used to and people are more shy to raise their hand or speak up. This year, that was not the case. I could tell from day 1 that this group of students were different and were going to have an amazing week. Within our group, there were some students where I could tell it might take them a little longer than most to open up to others. However, I could tell that each of them were extremely intelligent and just needed a little bit of guidance to get them to that point. The second day was very chaotic but I felt the students were able to gain a lot of skills from it. We spent the morning outside doing 3 hours of team building activities within our cohorts. Those 3 hours consisted of arguing, miscommunications, but growth as well. It’d be easier for me to explain what I saw in the form of Tuckman’s 5 stages of group development. Firstly, the group went through the forming stage on Monday when we just divided them up into groups of 4. Tuesday morning was definitely the storming stage. In these activities, the group argued, struggled organizing the team, and felt they weren’t getting anywhere with it. There was also confusion about what the end goal was and why they were doing the activities in the first place. However, watching these high schoolers go through the stages of group development during these exercises, I realized something. Their communication and way they persevered and succeeded by the end of the day, I realized how mature they really are. It was genuinely resemblant of any other storming stage of a work team in the real world.

By the end of the day Tuesday and into Wednesday, I noticed my group starting to go through the norming phase. They settled down and began explaining how the tough morning on Tuesday had made them stronger as a team along with being better communicators. They realized how important these new skills were to them now and in the future. Right now, my cohort can be seen in the performing stage. I’ve personally seen how each student in my cohort has grown and what impact they can bring to the table. I have also seen a few of my students stick out and have that leadership “X factor”. This was seen through activities and conversations we had on Thursday. This was the day where I could see how much this week had already impacted the students. We had lunch outside and even went on a nature walk, the whole group was getting along and building friendships which was very heartwarming to see how they’ve all grown together. Afterwards, we then came back on a serious note and began talking about their impact statements. Another goal of COLA is for each student to write an impact statement that they share on the final day with everyone about an impact they plan to make in their schools or communities following this program. The idea is to take what you’ve learned from COLA and put it into use by creating an impact in something they’re passionate about. After hearing my group’s rough drafts of what they wanted to do, I could tell that each of them would be so successful in the future. I was shocked how mature these students were with how they wanted to make an impact. If you had heard these impact statements, I promise you wouldn’t realize that they would’ve been made by 16 and 17 year olds.

I am extremely grateful to have been facilitating this week and have felt so inspired and excited for the future leaders in our country. These next 2 days, I will really witness the students shine and will see them at the highest. I want to give some personal shoutouts, starting with my co-facilitators for Cohort D also known as the “Dimensional Dominators”. I would like to thank Brayton Bollenbacher and Gigi Bix for being the best co-facilitators I could had ever imagined. They truly cared so deeply about each student and I believe that our students noticed that as well. They also guided me to my highest potential throughout this week. We all just really wanted the best from our cohort and wanted to guide them to become the best they could be. Finally a special and most important thanks to my colleague, Laddan Shoar – program manager of COLA, for letting me be a part of this wonderful week. At first it felt a little odd because I thought I was only a facilitator because of my role at Leadership Columbus this summer; but I’m so thankful I was given a shot to help facilitate and witness firsthand the growth of all the students who participated.

In my next blog, I will talk more about how COLA impacted me and how I saw myself grow. See you next time!

-Austin Gray