What is a "Student Leader"?

A student leader is a student who:

embraces the CHAMPS program or project that their school is running
takes the lead
participates in a lot of the CHAMPS functions

A student leader does over and above what other students do!

Perfect Example:  Alexis Keslinke was a 15 year old girl at Apollo Jr. High in Richardson, TX.  Her teacher, Coach Sellers, who teachers her 9th grade Pre-A/P World Geography class, brought the project up in class and wanted to know if the kids wanted to run a Campaign to sponsor their own dog … to be named “Apollo”.  Alexis was one of the first to jump on the project and actually built their MIRACLE project website page. She attended every fundraising, helped the coach with different projects, and brought her father to the Silent Auction, engaging his support! She also gave presentations to classes in the school, got other kids involved, and mentored kids who were a little slow in getting going.  Then, when the kids (and the coach) moved on to the high school, Alexis again joined on to run a 2nd campaign at Berkner High School. 

The REWARDS for becoming a Student Leader:

Alexis traveled to Washington for the gala to receive the “Clearing the Path” Award for her class/school, and at the CHAMPS Workshop the day after the Gala, Alexis received the first “Emerging Global Leader” Award from the CHAMPS Team.  She then traveled to Bosnia with CHAMPS Director, Kimberly McCasland …and is now working on the CHAMPS International Campaign website page.  She is one of the “student leaders” who has been selected to travel as a representative of CHAMPS.  She’s going this fall 2006 with Kimberly McCasland to Austin Texas to start a new campaign at the Trinity Episcopal School!!!

A different kind of student leader is:

Perfect Example: Chelsea Fernandes is another great student leader.  Chelsea lives in South Hadley, MA.  CHAMPS gave a presentation to her school and when the teachers decided they wouldn’t take on the project because of other commitments, Chelsea decided to go it alone.  She gave presentations to schools, classes, civic organizations and basically anyone who would listen to her.  She did fundraisers (K-9 Walk, raffles etc.) and raised $10,000 alone!  A local citizen in the community fell in love with her inspirational story and generously gave her the other $10,000 needed to sponsor "Hadley" the mine-detection dogs training.  She's inspired people to action and she also traveled to the Washington, DC gala and at the CHAMPS Workshop received the 2nd Emerging Global Leader (EGL) Award.  

The REWARDS for becoming a Student Leader:

Chelsea is traveling to Greenwich with CHAMPS Director, Kimberly McCasland on October 17-18, 2006 and will do a presention to a group of adults and kids.  She is going to be interviewed by a film crew with Time-Warner for a TV program “Teen Kid News” that is broadcasted to 200 + TV Stations around the country!  She’s another incredible Student Leader.  She traveled to Bosnia as well, and is going to continue to work with Kimberly on various projects as  they come up!