Chick-Fil-A Leader Academy, a company sponsored organization in order to create in an environment for students to further develop their leadership skills, to help create epitomes of direction and influence.

Opening the program this month, was a kick-off event to show what the program encompasses, and what to expect in the following year. Each month the group of 19 students will gather to acquire skills of leadership and guidance. The skills are broken down into each month, which will be accompanied by a “leader lab”, which puts said skills into action. Note that while the program teaches leadership skills, the focus is to create leaders, hence the name leader academy, not leadership. “Leadership is an idea, a leader is a person.” The program aims at impact through action.

Leader lab session began with a video speaking about a certain skill, idea, or action. From the video, certain challenges or ideology is imposed in order to create a certain set of thoughts within the viewer. From there those ideas are put into physical acts. For example, as a part of the “Feed the Children” campaign, the students gathered, forming lines with certain jobs assigned to each student. Students were assigned, a scooper, a bagger, a sealer, a labeler, or a packer.

Students who were assigned to scooping were responsible for measuring and pouring the proper amount of lentils, rice, salt, or dried vegetables into bags. Bags were proceeded down a row, much like of an assembly line. Once a bag had received all 4 ingredients, the bag was sealed by a sealer, and given to labeler whom would put a sticker containing information on nutrition and cooking the meal. The packers counted the food packages as they came and ensured the proper amount were put into each box.

Although simplistic in theory, skills including teamwork, coordination, management, and cooperation were put into action as the activity was completed. At the end of the skill-building session, the Second Harvest of East Tennessee would receive 100 meals, and the students of LCHS would get a sense of what it means to take action and work as a team in order to accomplish a goal in order to better others.

Rosie Harvey, a representative of the program, spoke about how with every school who is partnered with the leader academy we will have a combined effort of supplying over a million meals around the United States. With over 300 schools involved, the program has been very successful, and Rosie included, “We have received a lot of positive feedback.”

Chick-Fil-A’s efforts in impacting the new generation is a noble one, and in years to come hopefully we will see the leaders that we so need in this day and age.