Each high school may register one or two teams of diverse student leaders, grades 9 –12.

By January 27, A Faculty Advisor will need to register that one or more teams will attend and be present to support registered teams on March 23. Student team leaders should be identified by January 27 on the registration form. Team members must be determined by February 28 and can be added at a later date.

Teens today are very aware of global challenges that play out locally in their own communities, Education, Housing, Criminal Justice, Poverty, Pollution, Sickness & Disease, Gender Inequality, Decent Work Opportunities and Economic Growth. They may have experienced one or more of these challenges in their own lives or know peers, family, or community members who live with these challenges every day. They have developed perspectives and points of view as well as ideas that can inform adults who make decisions about schools and in the community. Student voices offer powerful insights into these challenges.

The 2023 Student Leadership Design Institute will provide student teams an opportunity to participate in a design challenge that allows them to draw upon their own experiences and observations to create team solutions that address critical issues that impact today’s high school students, their families, or community members.

Teams will participate in a design challenge together at their high school and share solutions with students from different high schools. The main purpose of the design challenge is to give students a chance to engage in design process activities that allow them to investigate for themselves solutions to challenges and issues that high school students observe locally in their own communities. Each team will be facilitated by a student leader who has participated in brief training synchronously or asynchronously prior to the conference Institute.

Although faculty advisors will support each team onsite at the high school and at the Institute (as a way of ensuring participation in a supportive environment), design time will be entirely student-driven, giving all students the chance to listen to, learn from, motivate, and inspire each other as they explore the questions and problems that are important to them. Student teams will have ample time to share their experiences and collaborate with other students in coming up with creative, new approaches to issues faced by their communities and pinpoint ways to communicate their solutions to adults who are decision makers.

Faculty Advisors are asked to CLICK on the following links, especially Planning & Preparation, for important information on this year’s VaSCL Student Leadership Conference.

As a benefit of membership in VaSCL, there is NO CHARGE for participation in the Student Leadership Conference.

Up to two teams of Three to Five students (grades 9-12) and one or two Faculty Advisors from each VaSCL member high school can be registered using the online registration form.

The DEADLINE for Registering a team(s), the faculty advisor, and student team leader(s)for this year’s VaSCL Student Leadership Design Institute is January 27, 2023.

👉🏽If you do not know names of all your team members by January 27, you can edit your responses on the form to add or change team members you register by February 28.