Lessons in Leadership: In Their Own Words

On left: Maya Rosenbaum ’30 and Nina Oreste ’30 shine a light on gender inequality in sports during the 2026 Middle School Leadership for Change Summit. On right: Middle School students, including Avi Tonry ’30,painted Escuela Asentamiento Yama in Costa Rica during a Global Education trip.

Middle School students are already discovering what it means to take initiative, show empathy, and make an impact. In this pair of first-person reflections, three 8th-grade students share their perspectives on leadership.

Using Our Voices for Change

By Maya Rosenbaum ’30, Nina Oreste ’30

During a middle school assembly in the Commons, the ever-present smell of stinky teenagers in the air, Jewell Sparks, Assistant Director of Inclusive Student Programs, was talking about leading a workshop during the Leadership for Change Summit. Our English teacher, Jen Kuehn, asked us a question: “Aren’t you guys going to lead a workshop?” We were surprised. She seemed so sure that we would step up and take the opportunity to lead a workshop that we just couldn’t disappoint her. We started brainstorming. As dedicated athletes, Maya, a basketball fanatic/player, and Nina, an all-around athlete, we thought that a workshop on women’s sports and the inequalities within would be a great fit for us to lead.

The Leadership for Change Summit is an annual event where students get to lead peer workshops on their passions, meet in affinity groups, and hear from keynote speakers. The summit is a great opportunity for students to step out of their comfort zones and practice using leadership skills. During affinity groups, students got to meet with Upper Schoolers who were able to connect over a piece of their identity and discuss how that affects the way they walk through life. This year’s keynote speaker was Jenny Nguyen, the owner of the Sports Bra in Northeast Portland, a sports bar that only plays women’s sports. She told us her amazing story of how the Sports Bra came to be and set the scene for our workshop later in the day.

Throughout history, women’s sports have been underappreciated and underrepresented. At Catlin, students are taught to take action when they observe an inequality. When we heard about the Leadership for Change Summit, we knew it was the perfect opportunity to take on a leadership role and use our voices for good. Our workshop aimed to teach students about inequalities in women’s sports and what actions can be taken to work toward a solution.

In our workshop, we mentioned many powerful and influential women in sports and talked about the different inequalities they face depending on the sports they play. While athletes such as Megan Rapinoe, a prominent U.S. soccer player, have had a lot of success reaching equal pay among men and women, athletes like Napheesa Collier in the WNBA have had a much harder time achieving gender equality in their sports. Our goal was to educate our peers on these inequalities so that they would be more informed and more prepared to resist them in their everyday lives.

We also talked about the gender pay gap outside of sports, encouraging those who aren’t as passionate about sports to still take action. At the end of the workshop, we asked our peers to share one thing they learned or connected with during our presentation. This allowed us to see how our presentation was received and what we should focus on in discussions later that day. We wanted our peers to walk out the door feeling empowered and ready to take action against injustices in their everyday lives. 

Over the course of the summit, we led the same workshop three times. After each one we realized we had grown as leaders in different ways. We grew more confident when presenting to our peers and learned how to connect with our audience by adapting our presentation in the moment. After the summit, people told us how much they connected with our workshop and how much they valued our presentation. One attendee talked about how our workshop made her consider the gap between men’s and women’s sports. She is now more aware in her everyday life of how it is much easier to access men’s sports. While she already knew that a gap existed, our workshop taught her just how unbalanced the system is. We realized how much of an impact using your voice can have and it made us want to continue leading in the future.

Showing Up for the Group

By Avi Tonry ’30

I had the opportunity to experience leadership in Turrialba, Costa Rica, as part of my 8th-grade Global Education trip. One of the goals of this experience was not only to understand how people can work together, but also to support each other and grow through challenges. The trip helped me better understand how leadership can work in a real-world environment.

When I usually think about leadership, I mostly think of it as being in charge or making decisions for the group. However, in Costa Rica, I started to see how leadership can be less about authority and more about your attitude: how much effort you add to the group, and how you contribute to the group experience.

In Turrialba, I worked together with my classmates to paint Escuela Asentamiento Yama, a tiny elementary school in a rural village. We completed the school in two days, with roughly 16 hours of work. The work was not very challenging physically, but the days were hot, the hours long, and the project repetitive. Despite these obstacles, everyone contributed to making sure that the school would be complete. 

The tropical climate, the repetition of the work, and the heat made the experience feel longer than it really was. There were moments when I would feel tired or less motivated to keep going. In those moments, I learned that leadership doesn't always look like taking the lead or directing others. 

Instead, it can be found in how a person responds to their discomfort, and how they contribute to the group work and tone. I learned that staying positive, offering a helping hand, or a kind word, can go a long way. By the end, some of us were covered in paint splatters. Others were scratching at bug bites. Others were wiping their sweaty faces on their shirts. All of us had a feeling of accomplishment, and we all were smiling.

Looking back on the trip, I now see leadership as less of a role, and more of a presence that each person carries. It is not always about directing others, but also about how you show up in a group experience. In Costa Rica, I saw leadership in many forms, through persistence, attitude, and the willingness to contribute even when you are not always comfortable. Experiences like this are important because they show how people can grow through work, effort, and collaboration. 

Through this experience, I came to understand that leadership is not limited just to roles or titles, but is something that is practiced with everyday actions, especially in moments that involve effort, patience, and teamwork.