A Day in the Life: Women’s

Leadership Summit in Hawaii

For the first time since 2020, Shattuck-St. Mary’s was able to send a group of Upper School girls to the Women’s Next Generation Leadership Summit in Hawaii. SSM’s participation in the summit began in 2018, thanks to generous funding support from Rex Bates ’70. The summit is designed to empower young women to explore different career fields, define their personal ambitions, and learn what it will take to achieve them.

“This trip was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I enjoyed learning about the pillars to becoming a female leader. I was enlightened each day by the girls around me, and was able to build stronger relationships with my own classmates.” − Katie Lustig ‘23

Your Future Leaders An Ssm Connection

On January 21, seniors Lucia Engelhardt, Katie Lustig, Chloe Bednar, Vivian Vu, Tiffany Ogunsemi, Teresa Salazar, and Maddie Knight, accompanied by chaperone and band & orchestra instructor Lauren Williams, woke up bright and early to head to Kohala, Hawaii to begin their week-long leadership summit. All were chosen to attend the summit after submitting essays in which they had to answer the questions “How do you view yourself now as a leader within the SSM community?” and “Why are you interested in becoming a stronger leader both at SSM and after you leave our community?”

The summit, which is in its fifth year, was conceived and developed by a faculty member from the University of Washington, Rex Bates ’70 (pictured above, with the SSM students), who also happens to be a Shattuck School graduate and former SSM faculty and Trustee. Held in Hawaii, as the Hawaiian culture is used as a way of framing the challenges faced by young women leaders, the summit is exclusively for girls from SSM and Annie Wright Schools (where Rex serves as the Director of Business Development).

Inspiring A Vision The Final Days

The curriculum that was covered over the five days was based on Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Challenge and each day of the seminar focuses on one of the five practices of exemplary leadership: Model the Way; Inspire a Shared Vision; Challenge the Process; Enable Others to Act; and, Encourage the Heart. This included many different activities that helped the students explore their leadership qualities, strengths, and challenges. One of the highlights for many of the SSM students was when they went to a retreat center high in the mountains run by Joel and Michelle Levy, founders of Wisdom at Work. There they learned how to use mindfulness to find, fuel, and pursue leadership passions. They also got to make leis from the ‘āina (land and sea).

Before the group returned home to Faribault, they were able to spend two days in the city exploring the island, soaking up more of the sunshine, and swimming with turtles. A whale sighting even occurred when they were out to lunch! They ended the trip with a bit of shopping and a farewell dinner with other summit attendees, as well as Rex Bates ’70.