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Glassman Leaders Graduate from Carnegie’s Leadership Course
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n 2020 Whitfield alumnus Robert Glassman ’02 established the Glassman Leaders program in the spirit of his own transformative experience. The Glassman Leaders program grants a promising group of upper school student leaders access to a Dale Carnegie leadership course each school year. Students then receive additional public speaking coaching from Whitfield faculty and staff and are provided multiple opportunities to practice these skills. “My dad put me in Dale Carnegie when I was a junior in high school. I was the only kid in the class and remember having to get up in front of all of the young professionals and give speeches. It was incredibly intimidating at the time but also one of the most beneficial things I’ve ever done. I’m so proud of this innovation and one-of-kind partnership between Whitfield and Dale Carnegie that will give these high school students the confidence and skills needed to do what Dale Carnegie set out to do: win friends and influence people.”
The Glassman Leaders recently completed Dale Carnegie’s innovative Generation.Next Youth Leadership Course. Generation.Next teaches teens how to strengthen interpersonal relations, manage stress, and handle fast-changing conditions in school and in life. The goal of the program is to create persuasive communicators, creative problem solvers, and confident, enthusiastic leaders. Now more than ever, it is imperative to equip teens with the tools to think critically as they navigate a world of constant information overload. Being thoughtful consumers and servant leaders in a global society is precisely where the Carnegie coursework intersects with Whitfield’s proprietary character education program, The Habits of Mind & Heart. Affectionately known as The Habits, this program focuses on the development of six key areas: ethical conduct, cultural competence, citizenship, mindfulness, leadership, and scholarship. Whitfield, like Dale Carnegie’s teachings, believes that
Sharing Stories and Creating Connections
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he sixth grade English curriculum is designed to guide students as they explore and develop their identities as readers and writers through a broad range of learning experiences. With a classroom motto of “Never a day without a line,” students in Ashley Eggebrecht’s course write every day in and out of class. Earlier this fall, Eggebrecht’s students completed a unique assignment that strengthened their narrative writing skills and created connections with Whitfield seniors. For the assignment, each sixth grader interviewed a member of the class of 2023 and then wrote a three paragraph reflection on the interview. Students prepared thoughtful questions in advance that encouraged the seniors to share their unique stories and practiced interviewing and recording the conversations Jenna Wasserman ’26, Winnie Murphy ’26, Sarah Wooten ’24, Linda Colvis (Dale Carnegie)
strength of character and selfconfidence are critically important to success in life. Participation in the Dale Carnegie course coupled with the existing leadership development curriculum offered at Whitfield helps develop Whitfield’s Glassman Leaders into confident, skilled, and resourceful students.
Whitfield Students Dominate Karaoke Competition
“Instead of having students write a personal narrative, I thought it would be really interesting to switch it up a bit and have them write an interview narrative,” said Eggebrecht. “It requires them to practice all the narrative writing skills like showing vs. telling, using description, using dialogue, and developing setting— all the objectives that I’m looking for—and it was a great way to continue to build community between the 6th and 12th graders.”
Student Reflections “This assignment was both fun and challenging. I usually write persuasive essays or essays about a topic that I’m interested in, and this was a different type of writing. I have also never interviewed anyone before—especially someone who is so much older than me who has been at Whitfield so long. I was very nervous at first because seniors are really big people, and I am a tiny little person many grades below them. But when I got out my notebook and asked my questions, Ivy was just so sweet about it.” -Charli Richards ’29 “I volunteered to be interviewed because I can think back to when I started at Whitfield in 7th grade, and I was so nervous around the seniors! I think this assignment was such a cool opportunity for the sixth graders to talk with seniors and through the experience, know that it’s ’ok’ to have a senior as your big buddy. It was very easy to talk with Charli because she is so easy going. She is also so well-spoken—she seems so grown up.” -Ivy Nissen ’23
“I think this was a cool assignment because I have never interviewed anyone in my life before, so it was a new experience. I was pretty nervous at first because, you know, with 6th graders and 12th graders there is a big age difference. As the interview went on, I was more comfortable and Danny told me a lot about himself and we discovered we had things in common. I really liked it.” -Zaki Bari ’29
Jonah Stolker ’26: 4th place
“At Whitfield, I think we do a pretty good job of getting to know students in other grades but since middle schoolers have a different schedule and classes, I don’t have the chance to spend any time with them. So having the opportunity to meet a new middle schooler through this project was a really cool experience. It was fun seeing our similarities. We both really like math for example. Zaki had really good interview skills—I don’t know if I could have done that in 6th grade.”
EliAna Long ’26 and Layla Gammage ’26: 5th place
-Danny Radke ’23
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my Muggleton and the following Whitfield students dominated in the final round of the St. Louis Area Chinese Karaoke competition on April 16, 2023. Cole Costantino ’27: 1st place Ana Struckhoff ’25 and Jack Lynch ’26: 2nd place
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with a peer in class. They considered the essential question: How does learning about people’s stories and sharing our own stories help us to build a stronger community?
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