East Woods School eighth graders chose Pal-O-Mine, which provides a comprehensive therapeutic equine program to children and adults in Islandia, as the organization they'd support in a yearlong project for their Leadership Program. The program was modeled on Leadership Huntington, a local program for adults based on a national leadership organization designed to develop community leaders. The students chose Pal-O-Mine after participating in a daylong dismounted equine leadership program based on Sean Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, their summer reading assignment and after hearing from the executive directors of seven other local, national, and international non profit organizations. Pal-O-Mine uses horses to facilitate growth, learning, and healing.
Other components of the program for the students included completion of an underwater robotics program that included programming and engineering remotely operated vehicles; a formal multi-course etiquette training dinner at the home of the Head of School; participation in a student leadership inventory to understand their leadership traits and how best to leverage them to achieve an objective within the group; a tour of the Cradle of Aviation Museum to learn about the aviation industry on Long Island which included a talk from the CEO of Transaero and his path to leadership; and learning from a professional fundraiser how to solicit, document, and thank donors for gifts.
As a group, the students performed 26 volunteer hours of work onsite. At the end of the school year, students traveled back to Pal-O-Mine to deliver almost $2,000 of cash, gift cards, and wishlist items to Lisa Gatti, Pal-O-Mine's Executive Director.
The Leadership Program concluded with the eighth grade students submitting an essay analyzing which leadership traits they developed and practiced over the year, as well as which characteristics they would like to improve upon for secondary school and college. The main components of the Leadership Program will remain the same next school year with students' studying non-profits and choosing one to support. The activities, however, will be tailored to the specific non-profit selected, along with the experience, skill, and goals of the incoming eighth grade students.
East Woods School
31 Yellow Cote Road, Oyster Bay
5169224400
