Kicking off the 2024-2025 school year, the Oct. 7 District 99 Board of Education meeting heads the first student perspective meeting of the year by showcasing the DGS PE leadership program. Senior student representatives Gavenson Bayer, Estella Rizzo, Becca Snouffer, Johnny Klaeren and Ariella Urias share how their experience in PE leading has shaped them throughout high school and will help them to strive moving forward.
The PE leadership program at DGS offers students the opportunity to become leaders the second they step into high school. Starting with freshman year, students are given the option to apply to the program, with the help of a teacher’s recommendation, students get to showcase their leadership skills very early. Upon acceptance, students complete one semester of leadership training sophomore year with physical education teacher Nate Terry.
Senior Estella Rizzo shares insight on Terry’s unique way of teaching the students how to deal with the more “difficult” situations that come with PE leading.
“On your day to lead the class, Terry would pull a kid aside to have them participate as the difficult student in order to teach students how to handle different situations,” said Rizzo.
The seniors offered a detailed presentation for the program, that showcased the involvement of over 240 students in the program as well as the opportunities that come along with being a PE leader. Senior Johnny Klaeren explains that not only is PE leading beneficial within DGS, but also in his everyday life. Klaeren currently works at Westmont Yard where he has been able to use the techniques he learned in PE leading to help wrangle the children he works with.
The overarching goal of PE leading shared throughout the meeting, was that PE leading is about not only growing themselves as student leaders but motivating other students to be in their position one day. When asked about a time they had positively impacted a student while PE leading, senior Ariella Urias stepped forward to share how PE leading tested her strength, but ultimately led to changing a girl’s experience in high school.
“The specific student I’m thinking about right now I led for her both semesters of my junior year, and I saw the biggest change in her. It still makes me happy to this day because I remember first semester she hated me. But one day, something changed and we started building a bond” said Urias.
Urias goes on to say how she would get in the pool with her students, which isn’t required of PE leaders, just to make this student’s time easier for her.
The student perspective portion of the meeting was closed out with kind words from board members sharing just how important it is for students to grow as leaders in high school, and motivate other students to become leaders in and out of school.
