Students of the newly formed Northern Lake County Conference had the opportunity to make the NLCC their own with the tools learned at the recent leadership conference.

Seventy-eight Knights along with hundreds of other students were nominated by their school coaches or club leaders to attend the NLCC Leadership Conference. With help from the athletic director at Wauconda High School, the College of Lake County co-sponsored and promoted this student-driven event.

“The idea for this leadership conference started two years ago when we were told about the formation of a new athletic conference. I was on the leadership committee, and we started planning this out almost as soon as we knew this,” said leadership conference committee member Molly Tomlinson.

Personally, she created the main message for the whole day, “Launch Your Legacy”.

“We needed a slogan, and after the social media accounts were created, we came up with the idea for #LauchYourLegacy,” Tomlinson said.

The day consisted of talks from Proactive Coaching keynote speaker Lori Thomas and classroom discussions from various NLCC teachers and coaches.

“I really enjoyed the day. It was nice to hear from a bunch of top notch kids from other schools. Other schools are so different from ours, so it was good to hear new ideas,” leadership conference teacher and facilitator Jill Tomasello said.

For some, the NLCC leadership conference was very effective. The ones that really paid attention and took it to heart have the opportunity to make the conference their own.

“The keynote speaker was a real eye opener. I realized that if she can, then I can. I know that there are other talented kids, but the fact that I was picked alone helped me realize that I have the potential to be a leader at whatever level I play at,” said junior baseball player Andrew Keaskowski.

For the students that attended the first ever NLCC leadership conference, they have the knowledge to make a positive impact and ‘Launch Their Legacy.’