LAGUNA HILLS : ‘Average’ Students Learn How to Lead

Challenged with stocking an imaginary lifeboat as part of a leadership conference for “average” Laguna Hills High School students, James Oh and a group of his classmates faced some tough choices Friday.

Food and water? On, obviously. Keifer Sutherland and Julia Roberts? Off, reluctantly. A generator? On, after a long fight. A sex manual and golf clubs? Overboard. The only shaky item left on their final list was “the person of your dreams.”

“I think we had very valid reasons for all of our decisions,” said Oh, a 15-year-old sophomore. “Except, maybe, for person of our dreams. That was not very realistic.”

Oh was one of 113 Laguna Hills High students chosen for the “I Can Make a Difference” conference, which was organized by the school’s Parent Teacher Student Assn. and held at Saddleback Memorial Hospital.

A few of the participants were student government leaders and athletes, but most were “commoners,” organizers said.

“These are kids that are not necessarily the top students, and they are not the kids who are in trouble,” said Jaci Songstad, a parent and the conference’s organizer. “There are already programs for those groups. So we asked the teachers to recommend students who have potential but just need a little spark. Some kids who could shine but haven’t had the opportunity.”

Principal Wayne Mickaelian said: “We want to tell these kids that it’s OK to take a chance, to be a risk-taker. And if things don’t work out the first time, keep trying.”

Throughout the day, the students attended workshops on self-worth, leadership and decision-making.

“(The conference) was fun,” said sophomore Jason Lorge, 15. “Everybody got to express themselves, and nobody was criticized for their ideas.”

Senior David Kammenberg agreed with Lorge, and also with Songstad’s assessment of the students chosen to attend.

“Most of us are not the leaders, although we could be except that some of us are pretty quiet and are afraid to express our opinions,” Kammenberg, 17, said. “In high school, people get embarrassed when they say something wrong because people laugh at you.”

Erin Elliot, a 16-year-old junior, said she enjoyed the conference, although she thought the student government members should have been excluded so that more run-of-the-mill students could have attended.

“I know that they couldn’t bring everybody, but I have some friends who are bored with school who would have been encouraged by something like this,” she said.

Songstad said that a few student body officers were integrated into the conference intentionally.

“We wanted to increase their awareness about the average student’s concerns,” she said. “It’s important that they see that these students have something to offer.”