The Junior High Leadership conference is an event sponsored by Regina Dominican  in collaboration with Notre Dame College Prep. The event is geared towards junior high students who have an interest in being a leader. Neighborhood junior high schools are invited to attend a day of workshops to learn about leadership qualities and the ways they can be a leader within their schools and communities.

Regina Dominican’s student council girls chose the theme for the event. This year’s theme was Lead with a Purpose, inspired by Justin Bibber’s song and album title “Purpose.” Senior girls composed activities for the junior high students based around themes of leadership while interacting with the kids while developing their skills. The junior high students were split into different groups by colors where they attended three breakout sessions. Each session specialized in a specific topic of leadership.

After the kids completed their breakout sessions, students had a well-deserved lunch break. Everyone gathered in the cafeteria for salad, pizza, pasta, and other delicious treats. Once lunch wrapped up, each school came together once again to create a poster where they wrote down all the different things they learned in each of their breakout sessions. One by one, each school came up to share and explain their poster.

The WGN midday news was displayed on the cafeteria projector while lunch was being served in order to prepare for this year’s guest keynote speaker, Dina Bair! She is an Emmy award-winning journalist and news anchor for WGN Midday News.

For the last event of the day, junior high students were joined by the Regina Dominican student body to listen to an inspiring speech focused around leadership given by Dina Bair herself.

Viv O’Bryan ’18, a Regina student and student council representative said, “JHLC is one of my favorite days of the years. Introducing younger kids to leadership is such a fun experience. Everyone has a blast!”