Initially entering this school year I thought that I would be overwhelmed and extremely busy. I thought that I had made a mistake and taken to many difficult classes and I thought I would have no social life. I knew that I would be able to handle it but I also knew that I would be challenged. In the upcoming year I expect to be challenged a lot throughout leadership and all honors and ap course choice. I expect to make new friendships and form new bonds that will never break. I expect to have a lot of fun with some of the people that I am closest with. I expect to make lots of new memories, whether good or bad. I expect to struggle, I expect to make mistakes, and I expect to fail, but I expect to learn from every mistake and failure that I make. I expect to maintain good grades throughout the entire school year. I expect to study for every quiz and test that we have this year. I expect to complete all of my homework to the best of my ability every day. I expect to be on time to every class. I expect to earn the trust of Ripon High’s leadership team. I expect to be trusted as someone you can count on to get things done when they need to be done. I expect to grow in all aspects of leadership so that next year I will be a better leader, and the year after that I will be better, and so on until I am no longer in this program and I can use my experience somewhere else to benefit something else. Ultimately I want to get knowledge about my position and leadership in general from this program. I want to get knowledge about the real world and jobs and how to earn and save money so that I am successful later in life. I also want to get leadership experience out of this program. I want to get public speaking skills out of this program so that when I am speaking for presentations or a speech I will have a clear successful presentation. I want and expect to be a great leader.
Part I: Favorite Quotes-Page 2
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”-Winston Churchill. This quote is important to me because it reminds me to always stay positive. Often I find myself being negative and complaining when I have to do something difficult. Instead, I need to be more optimistic and look at the bright side of the situation to see how I can change this difficulty into an opportunity. This quote reminds me of my mom because when ever I am complaining about something, she tells me to be positive and push through the difficulty. I like this quote because I feel like it represents my mindset, I have gone through a lot of difficulty in my life, but I always try my best to make the best out of the situation.
“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”-Vince Lombardi. I like this quote because I know that I am going to get knocked down in life, but it doesn’t matter, what matters is how I persevere and get back up. To expect to make it through life without messing up is an unrealistic goal because making mistakes and failing is inevitable. After you fail and make those mistakes you need to get back up, brush yourself off and learn from your mistakes so that next time you won’t get knocked down. This quote is important to me because it is saying how important it is to learn from your mistakes and failures, and I can always get better at learning from my mistakes instead of ignoring them or getting mad at myself. “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”-Vince Lombardi. This quote is important to me because it reminds me of how I was raised. As a kid I always wanted to try new things, and once something was started I was not allowed to stop until it was finished. My mom would never let me quit things that I didn’t like because she didn’t want me to form the idea that quitting when something gets difficult is okay. Over the summer I had a very large summer assignment for honors English and I knew that it was going to take a lot of time out of my summer. I sat down for five hours straight to finish one of the many assignments that was due at the end of summer and when I was finished I was convinced that the summer assignment and the class were going to be to much work on top of my already busy schedule. I asked my mom if I could drop the class and she said no. At first I was really angry that I was going to have to use my time with friends to do my homework, but now I am glad that I didn’t quit and drop the class because honors English is one of my favorite classes, and in the long run it will be more important than some extra time with friends.
Part II: Favorite Quotes-Page 3
"A strong man stands up for himself. A stronger man stands up for others." - Ben the cow, Barnyard I think that this quote represents me as a leader, and I think that it represents the way that I live my life daily. I first heard this quote when I was around five years old, I was sitting in a big green rocking chair on my Grandfathers knee and my twin brother was sitting on my Grandfathers other knee. My grandfather was able to explain the importance of the quote to me and I found it very inspiring. After hearing this, I began to try to live my life by this quote. This year has shown me how important it is to not only stand up for yourself but to also stand up for other people. This quote can impact future leaders in this course by helping them understand that by being a leader they are expected to be the "stronger man," and stand up for other people as well as themselves. Reflection is important because it allows us to take a step back and see what we are doing well and what we could be doing a better job at, so that we become the best possible people that we can be. A simple statement can make a big impact on our future because it can determine how we want to live our lives and it can determine the type of people that we want to be.
Part I: Goals-Page 4
This year is the beginning of a long, exciting journey. Setting goals helps me stay organized with all the crazy things to come in the upcoming years. After getting accepted into leadership, choosing my class schedule, and expecting to play multiple sports, I knew that this would be a busy year. One of the goals that I have set for myself in leadership is to share my opinion and not hold back because I think I might be wrong. At first coming into leadership I was kind of nervous that the upperclassmen would pick on the freshmen and make our job harder than it needed to be, but it turned out that they were always open to help, and they respected my opinion and what I had to say. I don’t have as much experience as most of the people in leadership but I still want to be able to help and speak my mind when I think I know how to help or when I think I have a good idea for something. Another goal that I have for myself this year in leadership is to not procrastinate on projects or assignments. This year is going to be a busy year, and I can only make it harder by procrastinating and not getting projects done before the night before they are due. I am really good at procrastinating an assignment until the night before it is due and then doing it all that night. This year I want to change that bad habit and start working on assignments before they are due. I make lots of short term goals in life, some are about small things like getting an A on a test, and others are about bigger things like getting an A on my finals. One of my recent short term goals is to maintain a 4.0 through the rest of high school. I understand that this will not be easy, especially since I am taking all honors and AP classes, but it is important to me. This is an important goal for me because I hope to attend a great, well known college after I graduate high school. To meet this goal I will need to stay focused during class, complete all my homework, and study for all my tests. Another short term goal that I have is to get accepted into leadership again next year. This goal is important to me because I have already learned so much from leadership this year and it is only the beginning. I know that leadership will help me later in life because of the public speaking practice, the portfolio that we are making, and because it looks great on college applications. I have made great friendships and connections that I never would have made without leadership. One of the life long goals that I have is to get a job that I love. Getting a job that I love is extremely important to me because you only have one life and if you have to live that one life doing something you hate or even don’t enjoy the slightest bit, it is a waste of your time, and time is our most precious resource. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life after college sitting in a cubicle for nine hours answering phones and making minimum wage. I want to spend the rest of my life traveling and learning new things and making enough money to support my family. The only way I will be able to do something I love is to work hard during school so that I can go to a nice college and graduate to do what I love most. Another long term goal that I have for myself is to have a family. Having a family is important to me because I want to be a father and a husband. I want to be able to experience what it is like to watch your kids grow up and watch them succeed and have a moment of triumph and be able to say, “That's my son.” or, “That's my daughter.” I want to be able to play catch with my son in the backyard and read a book with my daughter. I want to walk my daughter down the aisle when she gets married.
Part II: Goals-Page 5
I am very surprised that this year has already almost come to an end. I have been trying my best to accomplish my goals that I set earlier in the year. One of the goals that I have set for myself in leadership is to share my opinion and not hold back because I think I might be wrong. In elementary school I would often hold back and not share my opinion because of the fear of being wrong. This year, I set out to not be afraid of what people think and it was my goal that I would share my opinion without fear. Towards the beginning of the year I was slightly shy because I did not know many people but I tried my best to share my opinion. Occasionally I would hold back. But now, towards the end of the year I have not been afraid to speak my mind when I have something to say. Another goal that I had for myself this year in leadership was to not procrastinate on projects or assignments. If I am being honest, I have not made much progress with achieving this goal. I have found that I get a lot of work this year and it is very hard to get through it all without taking breaks. I will try to take a break and then find my self scrolling through Instagram thirty minutes later and I have still not gotten back to my work. This is something that I am still working on but I am getting better. One of my recent short term goals is to maintain a 4.0 through the rest of high school. I have had a 4.0 so far throughout the school year, but now because of the corona virus shutting down schools, I have a B+ in Chemistry and I am afraid that I will not be able to get it up in time because I have no way of getting points for chemistry. Other than this slight inconvenience I have been able to maintain a 4.0 all year. Another short term goal that I had was to get accepted into leadership again this year. I have achieved this goal because I have been excepted into leadership again for the 2020-2021 school year. I am very excited for the upcoming year and I hope to be able to be in the Ripon High School Leadership program for all four years that I attend Ripon High School. One of the life long goals that I have is to get a job that I love. I like to think that I have made progress towards achieving this goal because I work every day to get good grades so that I can go to a great college so that I can get a job that I love. I am looking into new things that I can do to help myself reach this goal but this goal will take years of hard work to achieve. I know that I can do it as long as I stay focused and keep up the hard work that I have been putting in day after day. Another long term goal that I have for myself is to have a family. This goal is like my last goal, I can not really be sure that I have been taking steps in the right direction to achieve it but I know that when I am able to take those steps I will not sleep on the opportunity. I still have some things to work on but I have made great progress in working towards achieving my goals.
Part I: People Magazine Cover-Page 6
Part II: People Magazine Article-Page 7
Kade Nelson is currently a freshman at Ripon High School. This year he plans to be a positive role model to everyone around him. He wants to make sure that all of the freshmen feel welcome at their new school which they will soon call home. So far freshman year has been a big step for Kade but he is really enjoying it and trying to make the best of the opportunity. Kade is currently taking two honors classes and one AP class. He is really liking the challenge this year. Being busy keeps Kade on track for success so that he doesn’t slip somewhere along the road. He loves to try new things so there is almost never a time when Kade is bored or has nothing to do. This motivates him to continue to be open to new things. One of Kade’s favorite things to do is to travel. Kade is fortunate enough to have been able to travel to nine different countries and more than half of the states in the United States. He hopes that his list of countries visited will continue to grow so much that one day he would have been to every country in the world. Kade’s dad is a role model in his life and inspires Kade to travel more and experience more culture because he has been to over one hundred countries and is fluent in three languages. When Kade was around the age of eight his family moved to China because Kades’s dad got a job offer. Kade went to a bilingual school in Beijing, China for almost two years and was able to learn how to speak fluent Mandarin. He was learning how to read and write when he moved back to the United States. Kade hopes that he will be able to take a class in college that allows him to relearn the Mandarin language. Kade is involved in football and many other events at Ripon High School. Kade aspires to maintain a 4.0 grade point average throughout all four years of high school. This is important to him because he wants to go to a very well known college and get a great education so that he can get a stable job and live a happy life. Kade hopes that he will be able to get a job that he loves so when he goes to work he isn’t “working”, he is doing what he loves to do. Kade hopes to be able to play one sport every season for the rest of his high school career so that he stays engaged in what Ripon High School has to offer. He and the other freshman representatives are in charge of the freshman class for homecoming, decorating for winterfest, planning the Halloween dance, and many other events at Ripon High School. Kade hopes to have the opportunity to be in leadership for the next three years that he is Ripon High School. If Kade is able to stay in leadership for the next three years and become a legacy he would use his knowledge to help incoming freshmen so that leadership at Ripon High School will stay successful for years to come. Kade’s long term goals consist of going to a well known college where he will receive an outstanding education, getting a stable job that he loves, starting a family that he is very close with, and being able to retire and live a good life. If Kade fails to complete any of these tasks then he won’t reach his end goal, which is why Kades education and motivation is so important to him.
Role Model - Page 8
Someone that has made an impact on my life and I admire is my mom. On my second birthday, my dad passed away because of cancer. My mom now had the job of both being a mom and a dad. She had to parent my twin brother and I, and make enough income to support our family. She not only succeeded in this but she also made my early childhood very enjoyable, and I made many great memories with her. She never went easy on me and my brother or let us get away with things that we shouldn’t because she wanted us to grow up to be polite men, and I am very grateful for this. My mom made a very big impact on my life when she married my step dad. My step dad helped me a lot in school, and he helped me learn how to read. About a year after my parents were married, they decided to move our family to Beijing, China for a job opportunity. This made a huge impact on my life because it opened my eyes to the cultural diversity of the world at a young age. I was placed in a Bilingual school where half the day I learned English, and the other half of the day, I learned Chinese. Two years later, My family moved to Ripon California where I still live today. My mom influences my everyday life by helping me with little things like homework or driving me to practice.
Inner Animal...- Page 9
No matter what is going on, I try to work hard during everything that I do. I believe that working hard is one of my best qualities. Another one of my best qualities is working together with a group of people. I believe that this quality is important because teamwork makes everything better. When you work as a team, less work is dependant on you, and if you don’t know how to do something you can always ask for help. Because of these qualities, I would consider my inner animal to be a beaver. Although beavers may be small, they work together in colonies and build massive dams to live in and to provide shelter for their kit. No one beaver could build the whole dam by itself, It needs the help of the rest of it’s colony to get the job done. I think of this when I play sports, I can not win the game by myself, I need the whole team on the field with me to help me every step of the way. Beavers can not live alone. They are very social creatures and often live with eight to twelve other beavers. I think of my inner animal as a beaver because I am also very social and I like to be around other people who share common interests with me.
Part I: The Best Things About Me- Page 10
Part II: The Best Things About Me- Page 11
A Little Too Much-Shawn Mendes Sometimes it all gets a little to much But you gotta realize that soon the fog will clear up And you don't have to be afraid, because we're all the same And we know that sometimes it all gets a little too much
The first line of the song represents me because I have a very busy life between school, sports, and chores. Sometimes I get too busy and I just need a break. The second line means that no matter what is going on in life, we have to push through and realize that eventually, it will all get better. This really applies to my life because I am always trying to look at the bright side of the situation. The third line means that you don’t have to be afraid because we all have the same amount of potential it just comes down to who is working the hardest. I always try to put everything I can into every thing that I do so that I can be successful. The last line is important to me because it is a reminder that sometimes things get tough but you have to persevere, look at the bright side of the situation, and work hard and everything will end up alright.
Homecoming Activities-Pages 12 and 13
Part I: What I Like Best About Being a Member of Leadership-Page 14
So far, I have really enjoyed Leadership at Ripon High School this year and I am hoping that I will get the opportunity to do it again next year. One of my favorite memories so far was Core Camp. I had lots of fun and I feel like I learned a lot. One of my favorite parts of core camp was getting to spend time with people and meet new people. I became a lot closer with one of my closest friends at Core Camp because I was lucky enough to be in the same dorm as him. The food at Core Camp was great as well. I was able to eat ice cream every night which made my overall experience a lot better. I think my favorite memory at Core Camp was coming back on the last night after the last lesson, and getting to place “bagel baseball” with most of the other guys from the dorms around us. Another one of my favorite memories in leadership this year was secret Santa during Christmas time. I was one of my close friends, Gabby Delgado’s, secret Santa. I enjoyed picking out the perfect gift for her. It made me feel good to see the look on her face when she saw what I got her. My secret Santa was Jaydin Krotil, who did an amazing job on picking out my gift for secret Santa and she got me exactly what I was hoping for. I was very happy when I opened my present to see six pairs of white Nike socks. My last memory is a lot of memories combined and I don’t know if it really counts as a memory but it was definitely my favorite part of the whole year. My favorite memory from this year was meeting all of the people in leadership. Every single person has a completely different personality and they are special in their own ways. The most memorable time that I met someone definitely had to be the time that I met Royce Kinsey or RoycieD. The first time that I met him he was rapping in front of the whole leadership class at core camp and he was doing impressions of people. I instantly admired him for his courage and passion to be himself. This leadership class is probably the kindest and most caring group of people that I have ever met and I am really glad that I got the opportunity to meet all of the amazing people.
Part II: A Reflection of a Peer in Leadership-Page 15
When I read that we would be writing about a peer who does things for other people instead of thinking of themselves, I instantly thought of Niki Nguyen. Niki is one of the most selfless people that I know. She volunteers her time for many different events all while balancing an extremely difficult class schedule and work. When I first started leadership I was lucky enough to know a few people in the class with me. Even though I knew some of these people I still kind of felt like I was on my own little island. Niki began to sit next to me in leadership and talk to me which made me feel a lot more included in the class. Within the first few weeks of school, Niki and I had become pretty close friends due to her outgoing personality and because we share similar interests. We both bonded over our love for traveling and how similar our lives at home were. A time when Niki has done something for someone else without thinking about herself is when she volunteered at a dance that is made for people who have disabilities. This dance is called a Night to Shine. Niki volunteered countless hours of her time to people that she didn’t even know because that is the type of person that she is.
Part I: RHS Pride-Page 16
Part II: RHS Pride-Page 17
Part I: What I love to do...-Page 18
One of my hobbies is playing basketball. I really enjoy it because of the team aspect of the game, you can not win without every player doing their part. I first started playing basketball in fifth grade when I moved to Ripon, California from Beijing, China. At first I wasn’t sure if liked it but after a while it quickly became my favorite sport. I played a couple seasons in a rec-league and then moved to a more competitive league soon after. I enjoyed both years of basketball at my middle school but I was afraid that it would be my last years playing. I decided to tryout for the basketball team and was pleasantly surprised when I made the team and was elected one of three team captains. I look forward to playing basketball in years to come, Another thing that I love to do is spend time with my friends. I am always happy when I am around them and I have made very tight bonds with most of my friends. It wasn’t easy to make friends being the new kid a few years ago, but thankfully I talk a lot so it made it a little easier and I have had the same friend group since I moved here.
Part II: Letter to Parents-Page 19
Dear Mom and Dad,
I hope that when you read this you are doing well. I am writing this letter to show my gratitude and love for everything that you have done for me. First off, thank you mom. Thank you for raising me into the man that I am today. Thank you for raising me on your own for over four years. Those four years were some of the best years of my life. Thank you for never hesitating to help me with homework that I was struggling with. Thank you for disciplining me when I am wrong and giving me a pat on the back when I am right. Thank you for being the best mother that I could have possibly asked for. Thank you Dad. Thank you for coming into this family and instantly fitting in. Thank you for playing catch with me in the back yard, and thank you for being the father figure that I needed. Thank you for moving our family half way around the world to Beijing, China, where I learned what the world was really like at a young age. Thank you for always offering to help me with my school work whether it was a page of homework or a project that would keep us up late into the night to complete. Thank you for always being there for me, and for pushing me to be the best person that I can possibly be. So thank you, Mom and Dad, for always being there for me and for pushing me to be the man I am today, I love you two with my whole heart and I can't wait to make many more memories together.
Your son, Kade
Your True Legacy General Advice-Page 20
Dear future Freshmen Representatives,
Congratulations on being excepted as one of the Freshmen representatives for the 2020-2021 school year. This year will not be easy but I can promise you that you will have a lot of fun this year. I encourage you to try everything that you possibly can. Go to the dances, play or cheer in powder puff, join clubs, and be involved. You want to make the most of your high school experience so start right away. Your main responsibilities are to get the freshman class involved and to keep them informed of upcoming events. You will also be in charge of the Halloween dance, match-o-matics, and the student vs staff basketball game. You NEED to plan for every event and start working on paper work a couple weeks before the event (like two or three) so that you will be successful. Lack of preparation and planning really affected a lot of our events in a negative way. For the Halloween dance make sure to talk to elders in the program for advice because high school dances are a lot different than dances in 8th grade. For match-o-matics make sure to sell the papers for at least two dollars because if you sell them for less than two dollars you will lose money. (I know that sounds very self explanatory but the sophomore class sold them for one dollar last year and lost money. lol) Also make sure to advertise really well because we did not make a lot of money off of match-o-matics this year because not many people bought them. I do not have any advice for you for the student vs staff basketball game other than to plan for the event a few weeks ahead because unfortunately we were not able to have that event this year because of covid-19. Overall, the best advice that I can offer to you is that you need to work as a team with your fellow freshman representatives and communicate well to get the job done. You will need to split up the work load evenly so that everyone is doing the same amount. If one person is doing a majority of the work than most likely your event will crash and burn because it was relying on one person too much. If you have any questions feel free to text me.
Sincerely, Kade Nelson
Do's and Don'ts List-Page 21
Do: Use social media to publicize all events that we plan Do: Plan for an event at least two weeks before the date of the event Do: Work as a team with your fellow Freshman Reps Do: Communicate with your fellow Freshman Reps Do: Reach out to your peers for help when necessary Do: Ask elders in the program for advice Do: Meet with your Freshman adviser frequently Do: Own up to your mistakes and be honest Do: Split up work evenly Do: Manage your time well Do: Ask lots of questions Don't: Lie to cover up your mistakes Don't: Blame other people for your mistakes Don't: Keep ideas to your self Don't: Be afraid to ask questions Don't: Waste your time on work days Don't: Procrastinate on doing your portfolio Don't: Rush through your journal Don't: Make excuses Don't: Forget about due dates Don't: Break Morty's stapler
The Contact List-Page 22
Mrs. Mortensen - Activities Director of Ripon High School Leadership [email protected] 301 N. Acacia Ave Ripon, CA 95366
Mr. Perez - Freshmen Class Advisor for Ripon High School [email protected] 301 N. Acacia Ave Ripon, CA 95366
Sounds in Motion - DJ Service [email protected] (209) 522-5999 http://site.soundsinmotiondj.com/contact.html 931 10th St, Modesto, CA 95354
Events 22 (209) 552-5969 202 E Main St, Ripon, CA 95366
Caroline Hutto [email protected] (209) 522-5238 1213 Coffee Road, Suite D, Modesto CA 95355
Budget-Page 23-N/A
The Professional-Page 24
Throughout the year in our leadership class we have worked on many forms of professional learning with the goal of developing the professional leader. One of the things that we talked about the most in this class was time management. I think that we talked about it so much because you truly cannot be a great leader if you do not manage your time effectively. Some weeks we would be super busy with an event that was coming up and on top of that for some reason all of our classes decided to assign a lot of homework that week. This is were time management comes in. If we were not able to manage our time well than we would most likely miss something and mess up. And of course we made a lot of mistakes but since we practiced time management so much we were able to quickly fix our mistakes and move on. Personally I think that this is the best way to learn something. You make mistakes and get better every time. Another skill that I have learned this year that I think is very important is communication. The beginning of the year was very rough for the Freshman class representatives because we had little to no communication. We quickly figured out that this year would be impossible to conquer if we did not work as a team and communicate even the slightest details. So we made two different group chats and texted every little thing that we did or needed to do. We began to talk about future events that we needed to begin preparing for and current events that we might have been a little late to start on. After we had been doing this for a few months everything had become a lot easier. Communication is easily one of the most important skills that I have learned this year.
Change-Page 25
I feel like I have grown a lot as a leader this year. I learned many new skills and experienced many new things. For me, a time of frustration this year was working so hard on homecoming just to come in last place. We spent countless hours on paper work, setting up, planning, and decorating and unfortunately we came in dead last. But we have learned a lot about homecoming and we are going to do great next year as the sophomore class. I think that A time when we failed as a class was the back to school dance. There were a few major incidents where people could have gotten badly injured because of our lack of planning as a class. I do not think that we will ever make a mistake this big again because we have truly learned from this mistake. A change that I would like to propose for the future class is better planning. Morty spent a lot of time making our journals and they have multiple ways to plan as well as a calendar in the front of the journal. Even if you are just writing down the name of the event it is better than nothing. It is nearly impossible to succeed in this class with bad planning. So I advise the future class to take some time to plan out your events a few WEEKS in the future.
The Ideal Leader-Page 26
To me, an ideal leader is someone who looks out for others while still being the best person that they can possibly be. The ideal leader should maintain good grades and be involved with the school and their community. The ideal leader should not have to be asked to do something because they have already done it. The ideal leader should volunteer their time regularly because it is the right thing to do. And the ideal leader should be someone who everyone can count on no matter how hard the task. A student in the leadership program at Ripon High School should be expected to pay attention during class and offer their opinion during class conversations. They should be expected to finish their work on time and not procrastinate because late work is not accepted in this class. While they are helping plan an event they should be expected to evenly share the workload with the rest of the class so that no one is doing more work that anyone else. Acceptable behavior for this class is attentive listening, imputing your own opinions into class conversations, and most importantly, asking questions. Unacceptable behavior for this class is not paying attention, talking while someone else is talking, not participating in class activities, and not doing the same amount of work as everyone else is doing. Overall, to me the ideal leader is someone who stands up for themselves, but the also stand up for others. That is why I would like to end with this quote that has greatly impacted my life, “A strong man stands up for himself, a stronger man stands up for others. -Ben, Barnyard”