Youth Leadership America

An alternate plan was utilized for the class project during Class XXVI. Instead of the entire class working on a single project, the class members were encouraged to break into small affinity groups and work on projects together. At the end of the year, there had been 10–12 different projects undertaken. However, the project with the largest number of class members involved was the creation and implementation of Youth Leadership America. This program was modeled after the Leadership Houston Class Program with the target audience being high school students.  Twenty high school juniors from KIPP Academy were selected to participate in the 10-month program. They started with an opening retreat, met one day a month to study a different civic issue and ended with a closing event. The program was so successful that at its completion, the Board of Directors of Leadership Houston agreed to adopt the program and will continue to offer a leadership program for high school students.