Blowers encourages leadership through faith, biblical principles

As the school calendar fills up, junior high California Junior Scholarship Federation brainstorms ideas for upcoming events. Aiming to “love like Jesus loves”, the class takes time to create posters and plan middle school functions.

Diving into her first year of teaching JH leadership, Diane Blowers encourages the 28 students in the class to go outside their comfort zones and lead their peers. Blowers directs her focus to preparing her class for high school struggles.

“At the beginning of school we went over the attributes to a Godly leader,” Blowers said. “We go back to that to reflect on if they are showing those attributes and if not, how to start showing them. The way that we have turned leadership is not that they’re gonna be leaders where they’re higher than others. It’s going to be leaders in a crowd that help lead side by side with people.

“Throughout our weeks we do a lot of planning for our events coming up,” Blowers continued. “We take time out of our classes to make posters depending what the day is or what is happening on campus. The class recognizes all of the birthdays for JH that are coming up and all of the sport teams. I find it interesting that so many of the students love to work on the posters. It’s not just a hand full of students, the entire class enjoys participating in it.”

In the following podcast, Morgan Parker interviews eighth grader Billy Magulas about participating in JH leadership, Feb. 12.

High school demands collaboration with different people while working on projects and assignments. Blowers believes leadership will help her students lead with patience throughout high school and beyond.

Class lessons include Bible curriculums, skills for planning events, and service opportunities. Blowers requires the students go over the verse of the week and dig through their Bibles to examine how the verse relates to leadership. Students gain the ability to speak in front of peers and impact their community.

Faith Degroot, ‘24, enjoys bonding with her leadership class during Bible lessons and activities. Degroot shares her experience leading in junior high.

“I think it is important that we are being leaders and sharing God’s light,” Degroot said. “Without leaders we would all just be followers. In leadership we laugh and have fun, but we also pray and help each other when we are going through difficult times. Every month we get into groups and we all tell prayer requests and pray for each other. I love when we have discussions about why we need God.”

The class also participated in The Great Kindness Challenge, Jan. 28–Feb. 1, by making posters and encouraging students to get involved by doing kind acts for others. Students participated in the challenge by making lists of kind things to do around campus and participated in challenges to engage their peers.

Besides setting up JH rallies and chapels, the leaders celebrate birthdays by placing the names of each person with a birthday during school on posters. During the last month of school, students will take time to plan a field day for 7th and 8th graders.

Eighth grader Billy Magulas shares what his favorite part of leadership is. Magulas enjoys being apart of the class and leading with his peers.

“I really enjoy serving others,” Magulas said. “Leadership is a great opportunity for the students to serve and it is a good fit for me. I really enjoy helping out around campus and my favorite thing is to make posters for different sports in the seasons. I am planning to apply for high school leadership because it seems similar and I want to keep serving.”

The inspiration for JH Leadership is 1 Peter 3:8, “ Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” Blowers uses this verse to show how leaders should be and remind the students of Biblical leadership attributes that they should strive for every day.

Jasmine Davidson, ‘23, participates in class activities and enjoys the atmosphere of the class. Davidson shares why she enjoys taking on projects to better the student body.

“I love the fact that we get to share God with the rest of the junior high through rallies and events,” Davidson said. “I couldn’t ask for a better class and we have a great teacher. Everything about this program is awesome. My favorite is doing projects and making posters because I get to use my creativity while bonding with others.”

Students in leadership also engage in CJSF, putting together “candy grams” for kindergarten through high school students. They fill bags with treats and add valentine notes which are delivered in class on Valentines Day, Feb. 14.

As eighth graders finish out their last three months of middle school, they consider applying for HS leadership. For more information on applications, contact Robert Foshee and Aubri Foster via email. For information on JH leadership, contact Diane Blowers via email. 

For more articles, check out BLOG: Girl Talk-Do you really want to go on a Valentine’s date? and Drama teacher expresses passion for the arts.

Morgan Parker can be reached via email and via Twitter.

Below is a slideshow of the JH Leadership as they prepare for upcoming events.

Gallery • 1 Photos