This fall, ENVOLVE, a student leadership program created by Scott Backovich, visited Glenbard South. Through an exciting presentation filled with engaging activities, he taught students from all four Glenbard Schools a new idea on leadership in school: give not ask. Backovich explained how even events such as dressing up for a spirit day or week, or attending a meeting, ask something of students without giving them anything in return. Throughout his presentation, he showed different examples of how a school could give back to the students during the year instead.

     “At first, I didn’t realize just how often we ask for things from students, but even activities like a dodgeball tournament or the homecoming dance include advertising and asking students to go to these things,” said Glenbard East senior Claire Flanagan. 

     Glenbard South freshman Will Pope agreed. “I’ve never actually thought about how much different clubs ask from students but it was definitely interesting to hear and it is something I hope we use in my next few years of high school.” 

     One of the hardest parts of giving back to students instead of asking is coming up with ideas that could easily be incorporated into the school. ENVOLVE makes this easy. After the in-person workshop, schools have access to over 450 different activities on their website. This makes it much easier for schools, as they can scroll through ideas and find one that will work for their specific situation. 

     Sophia Opila, a senior at Glenbard East shared, “There’s already been more discussion on bringing service dogs in during finals week and handing out hot chocolate during the winter.” 

     Both of these ideas were suggested by Backovich and had also been implemented last year in different schools within the Glenbard district. This shows how simple some of the ideas are, yet they still can have a very positive impact on the students.

     “That was a really sweet way to start the morning and felt so much more special because we were asked nothing in return,” said Flanagan when talking about hot chocolate being handed out to students.

     Overall, students seemed to love the program. Backovich made the presentation extremely engaging to students, and his message resonated with many.

     “Every leader who attended that conference left it feeling inspired to show the student body what their organization is really made of,” said Glenbard South junior Haley Wong. “Out of all the conferences I’ve been to at South, this one was my favorite by far.”