Every Student a Leader: HELP & Andrew Grene High School
If you attended a conventional high school in the United States, you likely remember—with varying degrees of fondness—the core subjects that define the secondary education experience: English, Biology, Trigonometry, Geography, and so on. Electives and extracurriculars in art, athletics, or student government would have complemented these core courses. Among these peripheral pursuits available to you, you might have found something to do with "leadership," whether in the form of student body presidency or team captaincy. In most cases, anyhow, the opportunity to "be a leader" likely came in the form of limited, distinguished positions most often sought and occupied by students already demonstrating an aptitude and affinity for them.
Students who were "natural leaders," as pre-ordained by authorities in the school community, did leadership activities. And when it came time to apply for college, many students, through no fault of their own, would find themselves frantically scouring their high school pursuits for something resembling a leadership activity to put on the application. Anecdotally, a friend once shared that, having been rejected from her preferred undergraduate destination, she called the admissions office for some insight. The reason they cited for her rejection was that she was “a quiet rather than dynamic leader.” This reflects an understanding of leadership capacity as innate, scarce, and having a superior expression. It is an attitude that limits leadership opportunities, which stunts the development of leadership capacity, and so the cycle is set.
At HELP, you will encounter a different idea of leadership; one that is abundant and inclusive, not limited to a few totemic and "dynamic" individuals but unlimited, able to accommodate its various modes as embodied by all members of the community. At HELP, leadership is not only innate but also teachable in the classroom. And at HELP, leadership for all is a critical component in constructing a more stable Haitian future; the political turmoil of Haiti’s recent history has exposed the limitations of this scarcity model of leadership—of the idea of the transcendent individual figurehead—and foregrounded the need for an alternative approach that engages every young Haitian in the project of civic engagement and community leadership.
To this end, rather than leave leadership development to the margins of its program, HELP places it at the core of its curriculum. Thanks to a flourishing partnership with HELP, this is also the reality for the students of Andrew Grene High School (AGHS) in Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince.
Andrew Grene was serving as Special Assistant to the head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti in January 2010 when the devastating earthquake destroyed the UN office in which Andrew worked, tragically claiming his life. In the wake of his passing, Andrew’s twin brother Gregory and best friend Tim formed the Andrew Grene Foundation, setting out to “give the people of Haiti the resources to develop themselves through education and microfinance.”
Gregory Grene’s first vision for the foundation was to build a high school, honoring his family’s conviction in the power of education. With support from the Digicel Foundation, The Andrew Grene High School surmounted the myriad infrastructural and logistical challenges wrought by the earthquake to welcome its first students in August 2011, just 18 months after the foundation was formed. “The school was born,” headmaster Ricot Pierre says, “to do things the way Andrew himself did. With passion for Haiti. With affection for Haiti.” For Ricot, like Andrew, this love of Haiti is more than just a feeling; it is a guiding principle of life and work. “Very often, after a good education, children do not stay in Haiti. But there is a mission: to transform this country. You cannot do that if you leave Haiti.”
HELP supporters will recognize Ricot’s embodied love of country; it is a core principle at HELP that permeates all student activities at the institution, from dorm life to community service and, crucially, the classroom. Namely, the HELP Citizenship & Leadership curriculum.
In 2018, upon a visit to the HELP campus, Andrew Grene High School’s director and a few board members sat in on a HELP Citizenship & Leadership course. Impressed by the instruction and student engagement, informal discussions about a potential partnership developed over the next two years, AGHS making further visits to HELP and vice versa. Over time, AGHS saw an opportunity to harness the HELP leadership curriculum to better meet the needs of their students and community. HELP and AGHS entered a formal partnership in 2020 whereby HELP would develop a high school leadership curriculum and train AGHS staff in its instruction, led by HELP Leadership Program Manager Meaghan Balzer and her team. In the absence of any citizenship and leadership curricula offered by the Haitian state, this collaboration would allow AGHS to concretize the spirit of civic duty and leadership it fostered since its inception.
In fall of 2021, AGHS implemented the first level of the four-year program for its then-freshmen. Since then, Meaghan and her colleagues have adapted each of the four years of the HELP leadership curriculum to suit the high school environment. Those first beneficiaries of the curriculum are now entering their final year, and each successive class of students takes Leadership as a core class. Markendy Saint-Fort, AGHS' Leadership instructor, lauds the design of the curriculum for its student-centric orientation and ease of adaptability to the high school classroom: “Although the program was a new discipline at the school, the adaptation was easy for me as a teacher. The curriculum focused on practical and experiential elements facilitating motivation and rapid adaptation among students. Thanks to the participatory pedagogy, I noticed open-mindedness and an understanding of current topics such as climate change and civic engagement. I also noticed an ability to plan and execute projects.”
Among the numerous student projects at AGHS are the Unit for the Promotion of Gender Equality, the Joint Commission for Community Service and Environmental Awareness, the Committee for Entrepreneurship, and the School Activities Management Committee. Through these committees, students plan, organize, and carry out activities like campus clean-ups, classroom supply repairs, current events debates, and mutual support groups. These self-directed, collective initiatives are the result of a crucial tool in the curriculum called the Leadership Identity Development Model, which maintains that leadership can be learned and developed, is relational rather than individualistic, and is a process rather than a position.
One of the first questions an AGHS student ponders in their course is, “Who is a leader to you?” With the support of their instructors, HELP's adapted curriculum, and their fellow students, they come to include themselves in the answer.