Instead of attending the first day of school, over 60 Grayslake North leaders attended the Northern Lake County Conference leadership assembly at CLC. The leaders represented the sports and organizations to which they belonged and were encouraged to converse with students from other schools in order to find ways to better both themselves and their school.

The keynote speaker expressed his own experiences with leadership on a school setting. The speaker revealed that his own method relies on forming personal connections with the people that are close. Junior Cara Delacluyse represented Art Club at the conference, and found new leadership methods to apply to her organization.

“We talked a lot about forming meaningful relationships with people and how when you apply that to being a leader you create a space where people feel comfortable enough to be themselves and do awesome things,” Delacluyse said.

The conference was divided into four sections. In the first two sections, leaders were put into groups that comprised both athletic and activity representatives. These sections were chosen to put students together with other students who may not have the same interests or go to the same school as them to foster diversity.

“I found it interesting how even though we’re still in the same conference and all from around this area, we all have different ways of learning and leading. It taught me how to better myself and other sports and activities I belong to,” said Snowball president Kellyanne Critzer.

The third section was comprised of like minded students from similar activities to create a focus group, concentrated on problems facing their clubs and solutions stemming from their peers.

“I really enjoyed talking and brainstorming with students from other schools, who were involved in things I’m interested in. They all had ideas to make their organizations better, and they gave me ideas of how to deal with things I’d like to fix in our own school,” said Tri-M president senior Sarah Spears.