About Us
Strategic Plan
Updates
Why Student Leadership Matters: The Importance of Empowerment and Practice
Dr. Sivan Tarle, Director of Middle School
To the untrained eye, a middle school assembly might seem boisterous and disorganized—the students standing up front struggling to maintain the attention of their peers and needing some faculty support at times. But the impact of students curating experiences for their peers, meeting weekly with their faculty advisor, and reflecting on and improving their practice has profound impacts on how they experience their own community. They engage in a year-long iterative learning process that asks them to think about leadership in practice—to sit with the frustration of peer-leadership and find creative solutions in partnership with their teachers. Our student community board gets to practice the art of leading, and their improvement over each year is impressive.
To the untrained eye, a middle school assembly might seem boisterous and disorganized—the students standing up front struggling to maintain the attention of their peers and needing some faculty support at times. But the impact of students curating experiences for their peers, meeting weekly with their faculty advisor, and reflecting on and improving their practice has profound impacts on how they experience their own community. They engage in a year-long iterative learning process that asks them to think about leadership in practice—to sit with the frustration of peer-leadership and find creative solutions in partnership with their teachers. Our student community board gets to practice the art of leading, and their improvement over each year is impressive.
In 2019, a few sixth grade students formed the first Brandeis Bulletin, a completely student-driven paper, supported by faculty. They did not inform any adult of their plans until their first draft of the first edition was ready to be viewed.Their editions are rich with student-specific content and jokes that a middle schooler (and their teachers) would appreciate. Their paper oozes personality, and sheds a light on the unique voice that is a Brandeis middle schooler.
Our students crave the opportunity to create and lead in various ways, and we have built a culture in which they are empowered to share of themselves in these ways.The student community board (both its executive board and its grade-level representatives) makes up only a small group of students and, therefore, additional branches of student life begin to develop. Our Mentoring Youth Board and our student-led clubs engage over half of our middle school students in organized and enriching activities. Students get to have a say in what their experiences are going to be; they rise to the challenge of self-identified tasks and are relentless in living out their values of service to student life.
Our alumni attend high schools where they put into practice these skills on a larger scale.Two of our recent graduates started a Dungeons and Dragons club at their independent high school, the first freshmen at the school to do so. It became one of the school’s largest clubs and is now shared with prospective families to exemplify the power of student leadership in their high school. Student leadership comes in many shapes and sizes, and we hope that our community finds space to honor each of them.
Student Community Board
Each year in the fall, Brandeis students engage in an election process wherein their fellow classmates present speeches that they have crafted, design and develop a small campaign, and think about the ways in which they could impact student life at their school. Ballots are counted and victors announced. From that point on, executive board members spend the year, meeting weekly with their faculty advisor, to plan spirit weeks, dances, run the student store, and plan and run weekly middle school assemblies. (Grade-level representatives are elected and serve for a semester.)
Each year in the fall, Brandeis students engage in an election process wherein their fellow classmates present speeches that they have crafted, design and develop a small campaign, and think about the ways in which they could impact student life at their school. Ballots are counted and victors announced. From that point on, executive board members spend the year, meeting weekly with their faculty advisor, to plan spirit weeks, dances, run the student store, and plan and run weekly middle school assemblies. (Grade-level representatives are elected and serve for a semester.)
Mentoring Youth Board
Following the announcement of our middle school’s Student Community Board, we open up another area for student leadership, our Mentoring Youth Board.This is the group that will design and orchestrate monthly student mentoring programs and activities for the entire school. They coordinate the curriculum and, with the help of their faculty advisor and grade level teachers, they design content-rich and joyful programming that brings our K–8 school community together.
Student-led Clubs
In addition, our students are encouraged to bring their passions from outside the classroom and pilot student clubs.The formal application process requires students to reflect on ways in which their club could contribute to our community. Clubs like Poetry Slam, Dungeons and Dragons, Straw No More, Q.S.A. (Queer Straight Alliance), and The Brandeis Bulletin have shaped the landscape of student life and left a strong impact on our student leaders.
