Students at Woodland Joint Unified School District have many opportunities to develop leadership skills.

On Oct. 16, members of the Superintendent’s Youth Advisory Council kicked off their first meeting of the school year with Superintendent Elodia Ortega-Lampkin at the district office.

Additionally, five Pioneer High School students kicked off the school year in August by co-facilitating a leadership camp for WJUSD students with the superintendent.

“Providing engagement and leadership opportunities for youth is among our chief goals,” said Superintendent Ortega-Lampkin. “Incorporating student voice is highly important for our district. There are many ways we provide these leadership development opportunities for students and let them know that their voice matters.”

The Superintendent’s Youth Advisory Council is a newly formed group of WJUSD students who meet regularly with the superintendent about school-related issues in Woodland.

Other leadership opportunities include the development of Youth Advisory Councils at all district schools. These councils allow students to advise their principals on making decisions that impact programs and school experiences.

This was the second year that WJUSD held the student leadership camp. This year, five students who attended last year stepped up to be co-facilitators, including Valeria Salcido, Nayeli Salcido, Ileya Salcido, Ava Fowler, and Jimena Sandoval, all from Pioneer High School.

“In my role as a leadership camp facilitator, I had the wonderful opportunity to lead group activities, facilitate discussions, and encourage campers to reflect on their leadership skills,” said Valeria Salcido. “I also made sure to create a warm and supportive environment where everyone could freely express themselves. Additionally, I worked closely with the camp team to ensure that everything ran smoothly.”

Over four days, campers spent time building their leadership skills, learning about their strengths, participating in team-building activities, and completing personal challenges, including climbing a ropes course.

“I decided to become a youth facilitator this year because of the incredible experience I had as a camper at the 2023 camp,” said Ileya Salcido. “That experience was so fun and meaningful to me that I wanted to return and help make this year just as memorable for new campers this year.”

To prepare to be camp facilitators, students underwent a series of training sessions over multiple weeks at the district office.

“We spent five to six hours every week during the summer planning how we wanted to have the camp look while also relearning about ourselves and our own strengths,” said Ava Fowler.

Once at camp, student facilitators worked alongside adult staff to lead the program. They helped plan, model and participate in activities, as well as help students understand their talents and facilitate team-building.

“Our job entailed creating fun and engaging activities that allowed people to work together using their strengths and strongest areas of growth to become leaders and the best version of themselves,” said Nayeli Salcido.

Students said volunteering as facilitators was a great experience for them.

“My favorite part of facilitating was getting to bond with the other facilitators and campers,” said Jimena Sandoval. “I feel like I was not only able to build a great bond with them but learn more throughout the entire process. The activities and experiences were all together great, but in the end, the people are what really made the camp a core memory.”