Building Leaders

By: Zenaia H. '28

When I was in second grade, my sister told me about the Green Team. I always loved nature, and when I learned about climate change, it inspired me to do everything I could to combat it. Naturally, when I learned about the Green Team, I wanted to join immediately. In fifth grade, my  dream was finally fulfilled.

While on the Green Team, I helped plan the Earth Day Celebration and led the school’s Lost and Found program. Leading the Lost and Found project developed my leadership skills because I created a system for the Lost and Found, coordinated with adults to arrange quarterly donations, and I gave presentations at school assemblies to remind people about the Lost and Found.

In my opinion, the most crucial leadership skills are communication and organization. Good communication helps in achieving goals and building supportive relationships, and organization reduces stress and aids people in focusing. Additionally, organization is the key to handling a full schedule and keeping track of tasks. These essential skills are difficult to learn, but well worth the effort.

I learned that when the Green Team Leadership Crew started preparing for the first Green Team project meetings. Everyone wrote out important facets of their project, like important dates, team roles, and mandatory resources. I would have been completely lost without that planner, especially since there were no notes from the previous year.

In the future, I will apply these skills and leadership experience to Green Team projects, group projects for school, and the Girl Scouts Silver Award. This year, for the Girl Scouts Bronze Award, two other Girl Scouts and I organized a beach cleanup competition. We worked with a nonprofit that organizes cleanups for the kickoff and ending cleanups. In between, we left beach cleaning tools at school for families to borrow. We also created a website for them to log the trash they picked up.

Finally, here’s some guidance for younger students or parents of students who are looking to learn how to make a change. Most problems they have are also problems for others. Find a solution and share it! If they have an idea, try it out. Lastly, apply to join a program that requires leadership qualities if they are looking to kickstart their skills and gain experience. If they don’t get in, it isn’t the right fit for them or they aren’t ready. Remember, it costs nothing to try.


Read more about other student leadership highlights from the Changemaker Program in the full digital version of the Summer 2026 issue of Live Oak Magazine.