Earlier this year, SunUte Community Center Director, Robin Duffy-Wirth and SunUte Recreation staff, Bird Red and Elijah Weaver completed a Leadership Listening Tour initiative funded by the First Nations Development Grant. Duffy-Wirth visited the Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy and the Ignacio School District to find out ‘What is the definition of a leader?’
In a recent interview with the Southern Ute Drum, Duffy-Wirth shared how the Leadership Listening Tour got its start. “It started like this, Crystal [Rizzo] and I went out to lunch and we were talking about grants,” Duffy-Wirth said. “[Crystal] said ‘I have a grant, would you want to work with me?’, and I’m like yeah! The grant was focused on youth and leadership, and I thought, I could go to the schools, listen to what the students think leadership is and incorporate all the kids’ thoughts.”
During the Leadership Listening Tour, Duffy-Wirth gave students examples of local leaders and asked students to identify some of their characteristics. 685 students took time to define what their idea of a leader is, each student wrote adjectives or brief sentences onto giant sticky notes which later totaled around 40 sticky notes filled with thousands of words to define a leader. With the help of the Ignacio High School student senate, all the words written by students were consolidated into one definition.
“A leader is a kind, humble warrior, who stands strong in their integrity, with a clear vision and an open mind.”
This is the final definition that was created by 685 students at the Ignacio School District and the Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy, is has since been designed by the computer graphics class and printed onto large banners that will be put on display at all the local schools.
This initiative was funded by the First Nations Development Grant, with the remaining award going towards funding the SunUte Community Center youth scholarships that provides free memberships for all students Kindergarten-12th Grade in the Ignacio School District.
“This was a really fun project because the money was there for us if we got some understanding of what leadership was to our youth, we could have gone in and taught leadership, but that’s boring.” Duffy-Wirth said. “Once again an adult telling kids what they think leadership is, this was kids telling us what they think leadership is – this is what [students] expect from us.”
“I want to thank the schools for allowing us to come in, they didn’t have to do that.” Duffy-Wirth said. She also expressed her gratitude to Contracts & Grants Manager Mikki Naranjo, as well as Grant Writer, William Hacker for their assistance in the grant process.