With a purpose

It’s about empowering the students to live with intention and purpose.

Eleven Jay County Junior High School students graduated last week from Teach One to Lead One, a new community mentoring program at Jay School Corporation.

The program teaches universal principles — respect, integrity, self-control, compassion, courage, teamwork, excellence, humility, enthusiasm and honor — and serves to help develop students into leaders for their community.

“We hope that they grow in confidence,” said Sara Colter, Teach One to Lead One’s Indiana area manager. “Our goal is so they can realize the potential they have that the administration, or their teachers, or their counselors may see in them that they don’t quite see in themselves, and help them to realize that they have the potential to do great things, and they have a purpose in life to do great things.”

Teach One to Lead One, which has existed since the 1990s, “offers hope to all students, including those at risk, to live out their purpose and potential,” according to its website. It guarantees improved attendance, attitude and academic results.

Teach One to Lead One brings in folks from the community to lead the students as certified mentors. During sixth period each Wednesday, 11 students met with mentors The Rock Church pastor Matt Ransom, Jay County Chamber of Commerce executive director Tabby Sprunger, real estate agent Jack Houck and former JCHS band director Kelly Smeltzer. Jay County Junior-Senior High School guidance counselor Darian Jones also served as the school’s liaison.

Each Wednesday, they tackled a different part of the program’s curriculum.

“To see the growth in each and every one of the students, from the first day until the last day here, some of how their story, how they’re taking what we’ve been teaching them, and they apply it to how they’ve related to (family),” said Ransom, addressing the crowd at the students’ graduation ceremony May 15. “This was the test project, I mean, you guys were guinea pigs this year, and you have exceeded all expectations, and so we are very proud.”

As a part of the program, Teach One to Lead One students are required to complete a project that benefits the community. The group delivered 15 blankets and pillow cases in April to The Journey Home, a transitional house for military veterans in Winchester. (Their project had been a collaboration with Teach One to Lead One students from Anderson Intermediate School, who crafted the blankets and pillow cases.)

Former Jay County High School band director Kelly Smeltzer speaks last week during the Teach One to Lead One graduation ceremony. (The Commercial Review/Bailey Cline)

 

“We really strongly believe in servant leadership, it really is about that, and the more you give, the more you receive, intrinsically,” said Smeltzer.

He talked about the students’ experience at The Journey Home, learning from management about how the facility operates and speaking with residents about their lives.

“Sometimes people create a picture of what ‘homelessness’ looks like, ‘it’s their fault,’ but it’s not at all,” he said. “It’s things that they can’t control that happen to people in life. It’s like that, a snap of the finger, they have no money and they’re homeless.”

Colter, a Jay County native, started as a mentor in the program when it came to Indiana in 2019. Now a Hamilton County resident, she dreamed of bringing Teach One to Lead One to her hometown. 

“We take the students who are chosen based on their leadership potential and then we teach them skills to become good leaders, so that they can lead themselves and their peers well, and become responsible citizens, realize their purpose, realize their potential,” said Colter. 

Along with a diploma for completing the program, students also received a letter from Teach One to Lead One to use in their portfolios for future job opportunities.

Colter hopes to bump the class size up to between 15 and 20 students next year. She noted the organization is always looking for more mentors from the community.

“It’s really uplifting,” said Cheyenne Ladewig, a student who hopes to become an elementary teacher in the future. “The program teaches you a lot about the universal principles … and how you’re supposed to act in the community. It’s tough to learn these things and go out and realize how many people don’t use (them) and should take (this course).”