Seniors Alex Brew, Kari Heusinkveld, Jay Mast, Stephen Pettifor, and Kelly Snyder received Leadership Development Awards at the school's May 16 awards program. These are the first recipients to be recognized for excelling in mobilizing others in ways that enrich the Bethany community. This recognition is the culmination of the newly-implemented Leadership Development Program that provides goals, teaching tools, and evaluation of skills for students in leadership roles.

2008 Leadership Development Award Recipients This new process resulted from Bethany's board recognizing that developing student leadership skills has been a strength at Bethany and its vision to strengthen this contribution to the church and world by creating a process for teachers to work more intentionally at developing and nurturing student leaders. The crux of the process continues to be faculty members who teach leadership skills and mentor student leaders in many settings-both inside and outside the classroom-but now provides a rubric for assessing leadership skills.

This leadership skills rubric includes six areas: vision and passion (big picture), public communication and administration (basic skills), and integrity and relational skills (personal attributes). Throughout the year teachers used the rubric to explain the set of leadership skills and the assessment process to students. Teachers supervised student leaders in their identified roles using an action-reflection model to discuss performance: what went well, what did not, identify areas and ways to improve.

At the end of a leadership event or role, teachers completed an assessment form for the Student Life Cluster to use in determining which seniors should be recognized for excelling in leadership. Students can participate in leadership roles in any or all four years of high school, but recognition of students who have demonstrated significant leadership skills occurs at the end of their senior year.