By Lianna Arenas

With a galactic theme, Elementary SCA Leadership Workshop (ESCALW) introduced the saying “Leadership is out of this world” for the elementary school workshop, with various space decorations two weeks ago at Salem Middle School. PA’s SCA worked with SCAs from other high schools to hold this event.

Junior staffer Daniel Bojo explained that when it comes to leadership, “knowing your philosophy and honing your skills, you can reach new heights and explore things out of this world.”

Senior and counselor of the Voyager council Chris Kunze said, “ESCALW is an opportunity for all the high schools to come together and put on a leadership workshop for SCA leaders in each of the elementary schools.”

The overall goal of the workshop is to help the students get exposed to different decision-making processes and role modeling skills at a young age. “This is important because they can help foster their leadership style and take back all the skills they learned during workshop to their schools,” said Kunze.

Bojo added, “ESCALW is a great opportunity for young students to experience what workshops are like or what workshop is as it was more tailored to people their age.”

Apart from her past experiences from other workshops, junior Mariner counselor Sarah Olander incorporated skills she developed from previous middle school workshops. This workshop, in particular, was different as she was dealing with younger kids. “We had to simplify our plans in order for the kids to understand, but overall I think they had a great time,” she said. “They were really excited just for being there and having fun.”

Throughout the day, multiple activities such as creating skits based on role modeling skills and decision-making processes were created and then performed by the students.

Watching all the kids grow from the beginning of the day to the end was generally every counselors’ favorite part as well as interacting with them.

“When the kids first came in almost none of them knew each other, but by the end of the day they were all hugging and making friendships which were amazing to witness in the span of only seven hours,” said Olander.

The opportunity to see the kids’ growth and know that he, along with the entire staff, made an impact on the students’ lives were Kunze’s favorite part. “I really liked the opportunity to give back and see the kids we were serving,” he said.

Bojo enjoyed the meetings leading up to workshop because he got to spend a lot of time with the staff. “Interacting with people from different schools around the city really shows how diverse everyone is, but at the core, how we’re all similar people that are serving for the similar reasons,” he said.

Senior Bella Cabaccan, the counselor for Aquarius, enjoyed interacting with the kids and seeing their growth. “It was really cool because when I was in elementary school, I was never really involved,” she said. “Seeing how early and young these kids start and how important leadership to them is amazing.”

ESCALW was a memorable experience to the counselors and children. “It’s very cool that our school system provides us with the opportunity to get involved through essential administration,” said Kunze. “It placed such a big emphasis on leadership and seeing how passionate the kids and counselors were was truly amazing.”

Overall, ESCALW provides young students with the ability to spread leadership skills in their schools, something that some of the counselors were not able to experience at that age.

Bojo said, “Now that the kids have this opportunity, I can’t wait to see what they have planned and what they do when they’re our age.”