Student Leadership Council - a three-day immersive for Grades 6–8 and Grades 9–12. Identity, governance, debate, and a signed council charter that outlives the room.
Our mentors are exceptional Harvard students who bring real-world experience and guidance to every project.
Sophomore at Harvard College studying Economics and Statistics. From San Francisco, she loves traveling, trying out different foods, and making new friends!
First-year at Harvard College, planning to concentrate in East Asian Studies and Government with a Secondary in Education. Former State President of the California Association of Student Councils, uplifting 3500+ students yearly. Currently involved with Harvard Consulting in Business and the Environment and the Asian Leadership Initiative.
Junior at Harvard studying Integrative Biology and Computer Science. Currently studying abroad at Oxford in the UK. Volunteers for legal advocacy groups, does research for rare autoimmune disorders, and loves to hike around the northeast.
Junior at Harvard concentrating in Government and Statistics, with a secondary in Astrophysics. Serves as a project manager on the Ethics Committee of Harvard HCS Tech for Social Good and is the current Deputy Director of Foreign Summits for the Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative.
Graduate of Harvard College, where she studied Applied Mathematics, Government, and Education. Focused on educational equity through leadership in Harvard Model Congress and worked in youth homelessness at the Y2Y Shelter. Currently works at Breaktime as a Richardson Fellow.
Focus on identity, values, and personal leadership narrative development
Deep exploration of governance, systems thinking, and how decisions are made
Heavy emphasis on real-world leadership pressure, debate, and critical thinking
Students design and actively build a functioning Student Leadership Council
Strong experiential learning through case studies, role plays, and external leaders
Ends with students presenting, defending ideas, and taking ownership of leadership roles
Introduction to what leadership is through story, identity, and simple reflection
Focus on self-awareness, values, communication, and listening skills
Highly interactive learning using games, challenges, and group activities
Builds confidence in speaking, collaboration, and basic decision-making
Introduces simple governance concepts in age-appropriate, visual ways
Culminates in students presenting ideas and experiencing early leadership roles
Before any framework or formula, students do the inner work - rivers of life, values, the leader they have actually witnessed. Governance lands on a person, not a poster.
The room rewards specificity, not enthusiasm. "Honest responses only." Students arguing with the material is the point, not a problem to manage.
Charters, terms of reference, accountability, mandate vs. suggestion. Two case studies - a council that failed and one that didn't - sit at the centre of the work.
Debates with no winners. Difficult conversation role-plays. A school leadership panel that responds honestly. Faculty facilitate but do not rescue.
Every student must teach a governance concept to an outside audience including at least one teacher. If they can teach it, they understand it. If they can't, they don't.
Charter signed, roles claimed, photograph taken in gowns. This isn't a workshop that ends - it's a founding cohort that begins.
Select a cohort, then open any day to see every session, timing, and faculty assignment.
| No. | Topic | Outline | Time | Duration | Faculty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welcome and Intent | No warm-up. Students sit and are asked one question: think of a leader you have seen up close in your own life, not famous, just real. What did they do that made them worth following? Take answers standing. Move fast. | 09:00–09:15 | 15 mins | Harvard Student Mentors |
| 2 | River of Life - Self Work | A3 paper, markers, no phones. Each student draws their life as a river from birth to now. Key events, turning points, people who shaped them, failures, moments of pride. Calm music. Silent individual work. | 09:15–09:50 | 35 mins | Harvard Student Mentors |
| 3 | River of Life - Triads | Groups of three. Each person shares for eight minutes. Listeners do not interrupt. After sharing, each listener offers one observation only - not advice, not a question. The mentor models this before they begin. | 09:50–10:30 | 40 mins | Harvard Student Mentors |
| 4 | Break | 10:30–10:45 | 15 mins | ||
| 5 | Plenary: What Did We Hear? | The mentor brings the room together. What themes came up across the stories? Flipchart capture. Likely themes: resilience, family, being overlooked, finding their voice. Connect to leadership identity: where you come from shapes how you lead. | 10:45–11:05 | 20 mins | Harvard Student Mentors |
| 6 | Famous Leader Video and Critical Discussion | Short clip: Michelle Obama on leadership and identity or Simon Sinek's Start With Why (5 minutes). Socratic discussion, not a debrief. Open question: do you agree, what would you push back on, whose voice is missing from this framing? Students are expected to argue, not just respond. | 11:05–11:35 | 30 mins | Harvard Student Mentors |
| 7 | Values - Depth Work | Values list of 40. Choose 5, reduce to 3, then to 1. For that single value: write three sentences on why it matters, one example of honouring it, one time they did not. Share in pairs. One volunteer shares with the room. The mentor connects values to leadership choices. | 11:35–12:00 | 25 mins | Harvard Student Mentors |
| 8 | Lunch | 12:00–13:00 | 60 mins | ||
| 9 | Afternoon Reset | A student volunteer runs the energiser. They choose it. They run it without support from faculty. | 13:00–13:15 | 15 mins | Student-led |
| 10 | Guest Teacher: A Teacher Who Has Led Change | A teacher known for doing something brave or different in their career. They speak for 10 minutes, then students ask questions for 15 minutes. Teacher should share one failure, not just successes. The mentor facilitates, students push for depth. | 13:15–13:45 | 30 mins | Harvard Mentor + Guest |
| 11 | Governance: How Organisations Actually Work | Not just school governance. Board structures, terms of reference, accountability, the difference between leadership and management, the difference between a mandate and a suggestion. Real examples including school governors, impactful student councils, and one governance failure. Ask: what makes the difference between a council that changes things and one that is ignored? | 13:45–14:15 | 30 mins | Harvard Mentor + Second Faculty |
| 12 | Break | 14:15–14:30 | 15 mins | ||
| 13 | Case Study: A Council That Failed and One That Did Not | Small groups receive a one-page case study each. One describes a student council that became a tick-box exercise. One describes a council that changed real school policy. Groups analyse: what went right, what went wrong, what would you have done differently? Present back in three minutes each. | 14:30–15:00 | 30 mins | Harvard Student Mentors |
| 14 | Leadership Canvas - Day One Completion | Each student receives their Leadership Canvas, used across all three days. Today: core values, a short statement about where they come from and how it shapes their leadership, two leadership strengths they already have evidence for. Private unless they choose to share. | 15:00–15:30 | 30 mins | Harvard Student Mentors |
| 15 | Closing Circle | One sentence each: what I am sitting with at the end of today. No positivity required. Honest responses only. | 15:30–15:45 | 15 mins | Harvard Student Mentors |
Three days of identity work, governance design, debate and presentation. Students earn their place as leaders, not just learn about leadership.
Charters, roles and decision routines built by the senior cohort become the working template the junior cohort inherits and adapts.
Harvard student mentors run the junior days with the same arc - identity, governance, and a charter the younger cohort writes in its own words.
The structure is deliberate. By the time the younger cohort enters the room, the council is not an abstraction - its charter, roles and routines already exist, written by students in the same school.
Each cohort leaves with a record of demonstrated leadership: a signed charter, a claimed role, and a presentation defended in front of school leadership - not a participation note.
Drafted, defended, and signed by the founding cohort with faculty as witnesses - not a draft to be filed and forgotten.
Roles claimed, terms of reference set, communications to the wider school agreed. The council leaves the room operational.
Each student finishes with values, strengths, role, and one written leadership statement they read aloud in the closing ceremony.
Students leave able to name values, strengths, and governance mechanics precisely - and to use them in front of adults.
Every student rehearses three council-specific difficult conversations and is observed running a formal meeting.
Charter presentations to a school leadership panel. Two-to-three-minute personal presentations. Debate. No hiding.
Every student teaches a governance concept to an outside audience - beginning the wider school culture the council will need.
Charter signing, certificates, gowns. The school has a moment, a record, and a cohort it can point to.
Three-Day Immersive · Identity, governance, debate, and a signed council charter.
Limited seats for the founding cohort.
Standard program fee once early seats close.
Join the next founding cohort of the Accelerated Leadership Program. Build your values, design your council, and take home a charter that outlives the room.