Each spring, as the seniors begin to look to life beyond Milton, the Class II students prepare to become the School’s leaders, setting the goals and the tone for the coming year. The official beginning of this shift happens in April during Junior Leadership Weekend (JLW). Class II students and their advisors venture to Camp Bournedale in Plymouth, Massachusetts, for a weekend of bonding with classmates and activities designed to get students thinking about their new role.

On April 17, buses arrived at the camp retreat in the late afternoon, and students spent most of the early evening hours competing in friendly games of capture the flag and dodge ball. After the family-style, sit-down dinner, students heard from the weekend’s keynote speaker, Mr. Mike Weber, who specializes in leadership workshops and presentations for high school and college students. During his energetic presentation, Mr. Weber reminded students that the most effective way to lead is to model the behavior they’re hoping to see.

Saturday evening’s activities were a chance for the students to have fun and enjoy each other as a class. A talent show revealed many musical gifts, and from it even emerged the “class song”—a rap by Nick Alves, Andrew Nwachuku, and Josh Jordan—that the students adopted as their theme. After a dance, campfire, and ice cream sundaes, students ambled back to their cabins in the early hours.

Sunday’s events were focused on teamwork and collaboration—small groups worked together to figure out the best way to complete number puzzles, untie “human knots” and coordinate a 165-person lap sit. The much-anticipated faculty speaker, Academic Dean David Ball ’88, then—as The Milton Measure put it—“eloquently describe[d] the merits of influence and the significance of power through an engaging narrative.” A member of Milton’s speech team when he was a student here, Dean Ball’s presentations are always met with a captive student audience.

The weekend closed with a town hall-style meeting led by Class II representatives Robert Bedetti and Sophie Panarese in which all the members of the class were free to share thoughts, ideas and questions as they related to the year past and the year ahead.

Though exhausted by the end of the weekend’s events, the students responded positively to JLW, agreeing that it was a good bonding experience for the class, and that it got them thinking in the right direction for the coming year.

 

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