On January 18, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church held a leadership and volunteer work event. Student-athletes in the Champions 101 club partnered with them. 

“Champions 101 helps students build the mindset of personal responsibility,” club organizer Aaron Shelby said. “We emphasize that they have the power for self-leadership and to lead and influence others positively. The program encourages athletes to take ownership of their growth, both on and off the field.”

Students involved in Champions 101 are required to attend meetings and do assignments.

“Being in the club has developed me as a leader in school,” junior Sam Banks said. “It helps me build my leadership skills that will be useful later in life.”

Eastwood, Northview and Westlane Middle School students also focus on growing leadership. They meet weekly at St. Luke’s with their “Luke’s Leaders” program, where they learn about leadership and how to practice it. 

Students are asked to speak in front of their peers and are taught to identify issues in the community and potential solutions. 

For the fourth annual year, St. Luke’s partnered with the YMCA, the Center for Leadership Development (CLD) and Peace Learning Center to do service projects with the church.

This year, nine Champions 101 students volunteered to be table leaders at the St. Luke’s event. 

They assisted in discussions and participated in service projects with the middle schoolers. 

“I decided to volunteer at this cause. I wish I had had this leadership mentorship in middle school,” junior Makayla Smith said. “This is a great opportunity for me to be able to spread this type of knowledge to younger people.”

During the event, two speakers discussed their lives and views on leadership. Students were all given notebooks and guided discussion questions to accompany the talks. 

The first speaker was Romain Benjamin. Benjamin is a quality executive for Rolls Royce Corporation. His branch focuses on creating and developing equipment for the United States Military. 

Benjamin is also a rapper in his free time. Students got to watch him perform three of his songs throughout his talk.

Benjamin talked to students about leading and living with purpose. He encouraged them to find problems in the world or their community that bother them.

“Find an aspect of society that makes you weep,” Benjamin said. “Then focus your work and purpose on fixing it. It could be small, which annoys and gets on your nerves.” 

After he spoke, students discussed their thoughts and takeaways from Benjamin’s speech. 

“I noticed how he had no fear when he talked about what he loved to do,” senior Caleb Foor said. “I think it’s important as leaders and people to be passionate about what we enjoy doing. We shouldn’t worry how other people feel about what we do.” 

After Benjamin spoke, students were given lunch donated by Chick-fil-A. After eating, students listened to another talk by Paula Glover.

Glover works for the CLD. She leads talks and events on leadership growth for students of all ages.

In her speech, she discussed the development of her personal brand and what it represents. She encouraged students to find what they value and fabricate it into personal branding. 

“Just like any company has a way of branding, we as people brand ourselves,” Glover said. “You decide your brand and how people perceive you.”

After Glover spoke, students again discussed their big takeaways and their values. 

“I learned that a brand is not just a logo and that to lead by example, you have to learn your core values.” a middle school student at senior Dexter Parker’s discussion table said. 

After the discussion, students broke into three different groups for service projects. The groups rotated between preparing laundry kits for women, putting together food bags for the homeless and packaging diapers for mothers. 

“Managing the kids was a lot of work,” senior Chayse Jacks said. “I had two kids that disappeared for a good hour. They drove me crazy, but I enjoyed volunteering and am glad we could help.”

Students created kits for laundry runs. They consisted of detergent, dryer sheets and $1.25. 

Dove Recovery House for Women, which serves women with substance disorders, ran the preparation of laundry kits.  

The women they help are recovering from intense drug and alcohol use. Many of them come to the recovery house homeless or from jail. 

Fletcher Place led the creation of food bags. The organization helps homeless people, specifically immigrants who cannot speak English. 

They help them not only get food but also find housing, jobs, schools, and opportunities to learn English. In the last year, they served about 1,200 different people and families. 

Students packaged paper bags with snacks, water and sandwiches and were encouraged to write notes of encouragement on them. 

The last project students participated in was packaging diapers for women. St. Luke runs a diaper drive twice a month to help women afford diapers. 

Students packaged 25 diapers in a baggie and wrote notes. Although the event was not explicitly Christian, some students wrote Bible verses that were added to the bags.

“These kids are hard workers,” volunteer and St. Luke’s member Laura Mathew said. “They worked so fast and got so much done. I’m impressed. They helped out.” 

Students packed nearly 150 diaper bags, 250 food bags, and 100 laundry kits. 

“These students, with their background in sports, club leadership and peer mentorship, likely resonated well with middle schoolers,” Shelby said. “They could share real-life examples that made the leadership concepts more relatable. High school athletes are at a stage where they’ve learned lessons and can pass them down in ways younger students can easily understand.”

Champions 101 continues to meet once a month to discuss leadership and upcoming outreach events. Shelby would like the club to be restructured in the future. 

“One thing that stands out is how Champions 101 connects leadership with service—students are encouraged to serve, mentor and lead in real and tangible ways,” Shelby said. “Panther Nation, please join me in celebrating peer leadership at NCHS.

Once the club is fully implemented, incoming freshmen athletes will be mentored by sophomores and juniors. Seniors will continue to participate in outreach and volunteer work in their community.