School Spotlight: Winchester Elementary Students Practice Leadership Skills

Education Partnership Coordinator, Julie Blaylock,
supervises the Student-Run Credit Union at Winchester. 
Here she is posing with a student volunteer. 

Student-Run Credit Union Volunteers are Leaders!

Community Financial’s Student-Run Credit Union program added Winchester Elementary School in Northville as a school partnership in 2007. Winchester’s fourth grade student credit union volunteers have been leading and assisting their schoolmates with saving their money ever since!

Here are some pictures of our Student-Run Credit Union volunteers from Winchester:

Winchester: A Leader in Me Lighthouse School 

Student Credit Union members
visit our tellers to make deposits.

Winchester Elementary students participate in a school-wide program called The Leader in Me. This program, created by FranklinCovey, engages students in projects involving leadership and life skills, and creates a school culture that embraces leadership. Our Student-Run Credit Union program aligns well to many of the key components in The Leader in Me program.

Being “proactive” is one of the skills taught through the program. Students who would like to volunteer at the Student-Run Credit Union at Winchester must be proactive in filling out a job application in the fall. Students who apply must also take part in an interview with Community Financial team members, where they are encouraged to highlight their leadership skills and abilities.

A Student Credit Union member receives
his prize for making a deposit.

Student members who are saving their money at the Student-Run Credit Union also align with The Leader in Me program. Students at Winchester are taught to “begin with the end in mind,” and saving money for their future does just that!

Leadership Practices at Winchester and Beyond… 

The Leader in Me program’s basic principles come from the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. Through lots of research, Covey maintains that people who possess or acquire seven key habits are successful in their everyday endeavors. These seven habits include:

1. Be Proactive 
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw 

Winchester Elementary students practice these seven habits regularly during the school year. Businesses throughout the country as well are training staff members to be versed in the “7 Habits.” If you would like more information about the “7 Habits”, check out these websites listed below:

• www.theleaderinme.org
• www.stephencovey.com

Your Turn: How are you using the “7 Habits” effectively at school or at home? Tell us the ways that you are showing leadership!