Student Leadership and Community Engagement at Mountain View

Community schools operate under the philosophy that education is a shared endeavor among students, families, educators, and the broader community. A key component of this vision is ensuring that young people have a voice in shaping their learning experiences and school culture. At Mountain View School, the Leadership Elective emerged as a student-centered initiative that not only addresses a structural need for educator collaboration but also fosters youth agency through research, project-based learning, and enrichment activities.

The Leadership Elective is a dynamic space where students explore their interests while contributing to their school community. Yet, this elective was also born out of necessity. Mountain View’s middle school educators needed dedicated time for collaborative planning, prompting Principal Rhea Brown to seek a solution. She approached Community Schools Site Coordinator Richard Gijon and STEAM Enrichment Teacher Christopher Millow with a challenge: to create a meaningful elective experience that would engage students while supporting the school’s mission. Initially uncertain about what direction to take, Gijon and Millow turned to the school’s completed needs and assets assessment, which highlighted a pressing demand from students and families for greater enrichment opportunities, and community connection. Currently, the elective serves all middle school students (35 students in 7th and 8th grade).

The Leadership Elective is a dynamic space where students explore their interests while contributing to their school community. Yet, this elective was also born out of necessity.”

Trying something new is rarely a straightforward process, and the Leadership Elective was no exception. Ideas that initially seemed promising sometimes fell short—some even failed spectacularly—forcing us to pivot quickly and adapt. Whether it was a project that failed to engage students or an activity that proved too complex for the time available, setbacks became an integral part of the learning process. Rather than seeing these moments as obstacles, we embraced them as opportunities to cultivate resilience and adaptability.

Students played a central role in these pivots, actively problem-solving and helping to reimagine our projects. When a long-term partner, whom we had planned to collaborate with throughout the semester, unexpectedly withdrew support, we faced the tough reality of canceling a major initiative. This experience underscored the challenges of working with external partners—despite our best efforts, unforeseen circumstances can disrupt even the most well-laid plans. Instead of shielding students from these difficulties, we engaged them in discussions about how to move forward. By revisiting our priorities, we collectively identified new opportunities and redirected our focus to address other needs that had previously been sidelined.

Through these experiences, the Leadership Elective became more than just a class—it evolved into a dynamic, iterative space where students and educators collaborated to design, refine, and problem-solve together.”

Innovation invites failure, but success lies in fostering a culture where “failing up” is the norm. A prime example was our attempt to integrate cooking demonstrations into our Healthy Living lessons with HealthCorp. Recognizing students’ strong interest in culinary experiences, HealthCorp incorporated a hands-on demonstration where students planned a healthy menu and prepared food in the classroom. The lesson was carefully thought out—except for one critical oversight. We had neglected to consult culinary experts who could have warned us about ventilation concerns. Let’s just say that due to the pungent nature of cheese, the classroom became uninhabitable for the rest of the day. While this unexpected and humorous consequence was frustrating in the moment, it reinforced the importance of seeking expert input and anticipating logistical challenges before implementation.

Through these experiences, the Leadership Elective became more than just a class—it evolved into a dynamic, iterative space where students and educators collaborated to design, refine, and problem-solve together. These challenges underscored a fundamental truth: growth often emerges from struggle, and failure, when embraced, can be one of the most powerful tools for learning.

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Since its inception, the Leadership Elective has provided students with an opportunity to engage in hands-on learning and problem-solving. One of the elective’s guiding principles is that students are not just passive recipients of knowledge but active researchers and decision-makers in their own education. 

 One of the elective’s guiding principles is that students are not just passive recipients of knowledge but active researchers and decision-makers in their own education.”

At the beginning of the term, students participate in a structured, collaborative brainstorming session. This session is designed to spark creativity and critical thinking, encouraging students to explore a wide range of topics and identify intersections between their personal interests and the needs of the school community. To ensure alignment with the school’s priorities, students begin by reviewing findings of their community schools needs and assets assessment. This review provides valuable context, highlighting key issues and opportunities identified by the broader school community. By grounding their brainstorming in this data, students are able to develop projects that directly address real needs and build upon existing strengths. This process not only encourages students to think critically about potential projects and their impact on the school and wider community, but also fosters a sense of shared responsibility. Following the brainstorming phase, students self-select into groups based on their chosen areas of inquiry. This empowers them to pursue projects that genuinely resonate with their passions, allows them to develop a sense of ownership over their learning, and their engagement in the project is sustained by the knowledge that their efforts are rooted in the community’s identified needs.

 To ensure alignment with the school’s priorities, students begin by reviewing the findings of the community schools needs and assets assessment.”

Through inquiry-driven projects, students have explored a variety of topics, including:

Student Wellness

Leadership students facilitated discussions on mental health and wellness, advocating for resources and activities that promote social-emotional learning on campus. Mountain View has partnered with HealthCorps to implement Teens Make Health Happen (TMHH). TMHH is an innovative club that empowers teens to use their passions to improve their well-being and tackle pressing health challenges facing their peers. Trained near-peer health mentors guide students through the program, which engages participants in interactive health lessons and provides ongoing resources and support to bring health-promoting activities to their campuses.

E-Sports Gameplan

Although the e-sports program has not yet launched, students have conducted extensive research on the benefits of e-sports programming. Studies have shown that e-sports can improve teamwork, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills while providing an avenue for student engagement and career pathways in the gaming and technology industries. The Community Schools Coordinator is actively researching different funding opportunities to support this initiative and is currently working with Gameplan, a leader in e-sports curriculum, to bring resources to Mountain View. The goal is to launch the program in Fall 2025.

A central goal of the Leadership Elective is to redefine who holds expertise in producing knowledge within a school setting. By empowering students to investigate and act on issues they care about, the elective fosters a culture of shared leadership and collective problem-solving where students are centered as changemakers. This process equips students with the skills and confidence to advocate for themselves and the issues that are important to their community. These student-led research projects provide critical insights for educators into the challenges young people face, honors the unique knowledge young people hold, and instills a trust in young people’s change-making ability, thus offering actionable solutions that directly improve the school environment and cultivate an enduring sense of civic responsibility.

For instance, through their wellness initiatives, students identified the need for more safe spaces on campus where they could unwind and seek peer support. This insight, rooted in their lived experiences, led to the expansion of wellness programming within the school, including the creation of designated quiet zones and peer-led support groups. This not only reinforced the idea that student perspectives are vital to creating an inclusive and responsive educational setting, but also empowered students to become effective advocates for their own well-being and the well-being of their peers. By presenting their findings and recommendations to school administrators, students demonstrated their ability to articulate their needs and contribute to positive change, solidifying their role as active participants in shaping their school community.

 By empowering students to investigate and act on issues they care about, the elective fosters a culture of shared leadership and collective problem-solving where students are centered as changemakers.”

Demonstrating their leadership skills, students from the Leadership Elective advocated for their school and shared their learning experiences with Interim Superintendent Fabiola Bagula, Interim Deputy Superintendent Nicole DeWitt, and Area Superintendent Mitzi Merino.

Student-led research projects provide critical insights for educators into the challenges young people face, honors the unique knowledge young people hold, and instills a trust in young people’s change-making ability, thus offering actionable solutions that directly improve the school environment and cultivate an enduring sense of civic responsibility.”

The Leadership Elective at Mountain View serves as a powerful model for other educators seeking to integrate youth research and leadership into their schools. Here are key takeaways for implementing similar programs:

1. Start with Community Needs: Utilize needs and assets assessments to ground elective courses in student and family interests.
2. Foster Student Agency: Allow students to take the lead in identifying issues and designing solutions, reinforcing the belief that they are experts in their own experiences.
3. Embrace Flexibility: A successful youth-led elective should be responsive and adaptive, evolving based on student interests and emerging school priorities.
4. Encourage Interdisciplinary Learning: Incorporate elements from multiple disciplines—technology, arts, wellness, and civic engagement—to create a holistic learning experience.
5. Normalize Failure as Growth: Encourage a culture where setbacks are seen as learning opportunities rather than obstacles, fostering resilience and innovation.

The Leadership Elective at Mountain View School is a testament to the power of student voice in shaping Mountain View. By centering youth research and engagement, the program not only enriches students’ learning but also strengthens the community-school model. As educators, we must continue to create spaces where young people can lead, inquire, and contribute, ensuring that schools truly belong to the whole community.