Ankeny High School has nearly 1,400 students enrolled this school year. Even just walking through the halls, you’ll notice the immense diversity of students. Some students keep to themselves and follow the path they have chosen, while others stick out and stand up for those who do not feel comfortable doing so themselves. There are the obvious leaders, the loud, charming, and outgoing students, but with a closer look, you’ll find all sorts of unsuspecting high students who step up into leadership roles every day. 

“Ankeny is very successful. Every one of our sports is so successful, and that wouldn’t be possible without our leaders. I think it’s just important for people to see good leadership and to strive towards that,” senior Presley Drew said.

Student Leaders

Student leaders provide younger students someone to look up to. These leaders often hold multiple leadership positions but at the same time participate in activities where they don’t hold leadership positions. Student leaders can also learn from their peers. Senior Presley Drew is one of these leaders. She is involved in numerous activities and clubs while also holding leadership roles within multiple of them. 

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“I’m in the show choir [Visual Adrenaline], Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), Student Council, Circle of Friends, and Mock Trial. I was on the swim and dive team for three years, but not this year,” said Drew.

All these activities come with a lot of responsibility. For most of Drew’s leadership positions, she attends and organizes the meetings. However, the biggest role she has taken on has been working with the AHS National Honor Society (NHS).

“I’m the president of the NHS, so I plan all of our meetings. I also work with all of the subcommittees to get service projects going. I have to reach out to the administration and other businesses to help sponsor us. This year we’re putting on the dance marathon, so that’s been a big thing that I’ve had to work on, with contacting sponsors,” Drew said.

Other than NHS, Drew also works with plenty of other clubs and activities. Due to her leadership abilities, Drew can help things inside and outside of her meetings run smoothly. However, for each club and activity, her leadership role varies depending on the club.

“For most of my roles, I plan the meetings. In mental health club, I work with Will Harms and Eva Drew, my twin, so that’s helpful,” Drew said. “They helped me out with putting together things for students who may be struggling. For the Science National Honor Society (SNHS), I also invite guest speakers to come to talk to students. And this year, we have been doing things at Southview and teaching them about different types of sciences.” 

A leader needs to learn to work well with many different kinds of people, and some can be more difficult than others. Senior Finn Stukerjurgen is another student leader at AHS. In most of his roles as a leader, he works with other leaders to help spread the work across the entire club or team he’s working with.

 “For Science National Honor Society, we work together to plan the group project. This year, we’re sending cats for anatomy and microscopes for biology over to Southview for the eighth graders. Because we have 40 kids in that club, we try to wrangle everyone and make sure everyone knows when they’re going to go over there,” Stukerjurgen said. “For FCA [Fellowship of Christian Athletes], we help plan the huddles. And on the first Monday of the month, we have a big gathering of close to 100 students. We plan the speakers, the food, and the games there, and plan what the message will be for that month.”

While Stukerjurgen and Drew both had to apply for most of their leadership roles, a position that Stukerjurgen holds is one that shows his true leadership skills. He was seen as a strong leader by a group of his peers and was nominated as swim team captain.

“Swim team is something I’m proud of because as team captain, you are voted on,” Stukerjurgen said. “We try to communicate with the coach and be the median between the coach and the swimmers. We will help with those decisions, so there’s always an athlete’s voice in there. We also just maintain team morale, teamwork, and a good work ethic throughout the season.”

Certain clubs and activities are structured one way while others are not. For some or her more traditional meetings, Drew organizes and leads the rest of the students who are in the club. When she attends Concert Choir meetings, the meetings only involve the select leaders within Concert Choir rather than the entire choir itself.

“As the secretary of the Concert Choir, I attend and am involved in the meetings too. We talk about what’s going well and what isn’t going well, if there are any conflicts within the groups and how we can resolve them, and also the culture of the Concert choir,” Drew said. “Last time, we talked about assignments for the sight reading factory. But I also work with a lot of other people too, and I’ve met a lot of new people through being a leader in general.”

Among many other leaders, Drew and Stukerjurgen help with the positive atmosphere around AHS. Their personal goals as leaders have helped many different groups and individual students. While having an adult to look up to is nice, having a student leader is equally important to maintain solidarity throughout AHS.

Impact of previous leaders

Some of these leaders don’t just become leaders on their own; they have past students to look up to. With each new leader, it inspires another student to become one as well. Both Drew and Stukerjurgen started off as different people than who they are today. Because of the impact other leaders have had on them, they have now stepped into that role themselves.

“I had a lot of people in my underclassmen years that helped me get involved at AHS and were really fundamental in helping build me up as a person,” says Stukerjurgen. “I wanted to give back and make sure that the underclassmen here have the same opportunity to look up to someone. I believe that when you have that upperclassmen connection through clubs and sports, it helps build the culture at AHS. I think that’s what makes us special.”

While leaders have an impact on students’ lives, different things can inspire students to become leaders. Drew didn’t have a certain person who made her a leader, but her early high school experience did.

“I used to be really pretty shy, my freshman year, and I didn’t really talk to a lot of people. Then I started getting pushed out of my shell a little bit, especially in swimming and diving. I was the team captain of swim and dive, and that’s when I realized that people see me as a leader,” Drew said.  “So then I just started applying for things, and I found it was fun to get things done and be productive. So it kept me busy. I guess I just wanted to see what I could do.”

Being a leader is not easy, people need to accommodate the needs of others while still taking care of themselves. Drew used to be more shy, but now she tries to not isolate herself in her leadership roles.

“I try to push myself to be uncomfortable because I know it’s something new. I try to be intentional about not just staying in my bubble and talking to other people and seeing what they think about a certain situation or if they thought something wasn’t right,” Drew said. “I’m always trying to help other people in any way I can to help them have a good support system.”

Drew’s goal as a leader is to speak up and help those who are not able to do so themselves. Her idea of making an impact on students goes hand in hand with the ideas from Alan Feirer. Feirer hosts a leadership workshop for the Ankeny Bands section leaders and he believes that a good leader will simply better others through their impact as a leader.

“If they’ve done their job as a leader, you’ll be better after they leave, and other people become good leaders,” Feirer said. “I think one of the most important impacts that a leader can have is that other people, whether they become an actual leader or not, believe in themselves more. They become even more capable and willing to step out of their comfort zone and use those capabilities.” 

Leaders of all kinds have the opportunity to leave an impact on everyone. Students look up to those leaders who lead with a great example. These examples then pass on to students who might end up also becoming a leader. Leaders will have an impact no matter what, but it’s a big tell when a group becomes better as a whole because of a leader. 

Importance of leaders:

Leaders all over the world are needed within the workforce, businesses, and especially schools. Schools throughout Iowa have leaders that help lead teams, clubs, and student organizations. Leaders are imperative throughout the student body in order to maintain a culture throughout the school, split up the work between students and teachers, and to have an impact on the future leaders.

“Student Leadership can help support what the teachers or coaches are doing; whatever it is, it helps spread the work around so that the educated professionals can do what their degrees or their expertise allows them to do,” Feirer said. “It also lets students own the program. If there is student leadership at Ankeny High School, it helps keep the halls a kinder place, it helps the students own the school.” 

Along with the strong personality that comes with a leader, leaders need to have other characteristics to make their leadership have a real impact on other students. Stukerjurgen believes that the more connected you are with other students, the better leader you will be.

“A willingness to be personable and nice to everyone is very important to be a good leader. You can’t be a leader to only half the club. You can’t be a leader to only a few people. You have to be a leader to everyone and be nice and be willing to listen to everyone because everyone’s opinions need to be valued for a good culture,” Stukerjurgen adds. “I also think it’s important to be able to advocate for yourself and for other students, hear other people’s concerns and use that to do the best you can to make sure everyone is pleased with what’s going on.” 

Stukerjurgens’ statement that a leader needs to be personable to everyone who they are leading aligns with Feirer’s statement that to be an efficient leader, they need to build relationships first. 

“People will work harder for bosses, leaders, supervisors, managers, who take the time to build the relationships, build trust, and let people out there on their side. It’s about providing encouragement, help, and assistance, being present, and believing in people. It doesn’t work if you haven’t built that relationship because then it can be fishy,” Feirer said. “That’s why one of your favorite teachers or coaches could say one demanding thing to you, and you’re like, cool, yeah, that’s what I have to do now. But if you have a teacher or coach that you don’t respect because they’re not on your side, they can say the same demanding thing, and you’ll think they’re  bossy.”  

When a leader doesn’t show respect to other students, those students won’t show respect to that leader. Mutual respect within a community is essential, but Drew had some other ideas and characteristics that make up a good leader.

“Just listening is an important quality for a leader. It’s important to me that everyone feels like they have a say and are being heard,” Drew said. “I don’t want to leave anyone out, I just want people to feel that they are having an impact on things they’re doing. So just make sure you’re listening and being open to feedback and adjusting your ways of leading.” 

McAnelly, 13-year AHS staff member, expresses his love for working with students in MVP, or Mentors In Violence Prevention- a place for student leaders to thrive and help the school’s environment.

“Students who lead by example typically make good leaders. Having a good work ethic and good communication is important too,” said McAnelly.

Leaders, like anyone, are not perfect. There will always be room for improvement. Overall, student leaders are the people who bring AHS together as a whole. By leading through example, leaders can show other students that the community within AHS is important.

“Leaders help build our culture, our community, and a school where everyone’s included and everyone has a place to belong, whether it be a club, a sport, or somewhere in the arts. I hope that if everyone steps up and gets involved in something and steps up to be leaders, then we can keep that strong environment of extracurriculars and keep building culture at AHS,” Stukerjurgen said.

While Stukerjurgen strives to be a good leader to help the cultural aspect at AHS, Drew strives to lead for students who need someone to speak up for them. She believes that everyone should have a voice at AHS whether, it’s through themselves or the voice of a leader.

“I try to be active, and I think it’s important that teachers know how students feel or how students are thinking. I want to be able to help other people share what they’re thinking because I’m comfortable doing that, versus other people who may be more introverted,” Drew said

All around the board, leaders are necessary. Whether it’s within the school or any other environment, leadership in a situation helps maintain the group dynamic, but each group may vary based on the leaders themselves. 

Benefits of being a leader: 

Being a leader is beneficial for many people. Students’ learning and capabilities can be improved by attentive leaders, but a leader can also benefit from their opportunities. These leaders, through their positions, have learned life skills that can prepare them for the future. No matter the situation, there will always be benefits to being a leader, especially in the workforce.

“If you want to stand out in college and the workforce, you have to be able to take the next step. I think that’s one of the great opportunities here. I can go into college confident that I’m not just going to succeed as a student, but I can also succeed in an environment and with other people because I’ve learned how to work with them in high school as a leader,” said Stukerjurgen.

Leadership positions can help prepare students for their future. For some, it benefits their social skills, but the main benefit Drew has found is when it comes to a multitude of applications.

“It’s made me a lot more confident applying for scholarships just because I’ve had to do an application before to apply for leadership roles. Then, all these roles look good on scholarships,” Drew said. “I also feel more encouraged if I’m asked to be a leader in something in the future or have to be a leader in my job, I’ll have experience under my belt. I would have already learned from my mistakes.”

Holding a leadership role prepares students for the future because they have already started developing some of these skills.    

“It really is about making a difference in the world,” Feirer said. “If you develop some leadership skills earlier in life, and if that gets practiced at an earlier age, rather than you get your first leadership role at work at age 32. You’re just going to be that much ahead at making a difference for whoever you lead and whatever organization you work for.” 

The leadership skills students learn in high school can be passed on throughout their lives. If learned early in life, it can be beneficial when going into the workforce.

“All student leaders who have grown with the characteristics I talked about will help them be more equipped, whether they go to college, the military, or trade school,” mentioned McAnelly. “They’re going to be walking out of Ankeny High School with added skill sets and traits that are going to help them be successful.”

Even in the future aspects of life leadership skills will follow people into the workforce.

“You can really hit the ground running, and you carry those habits into that first job. if it’s a situation where people can get promoted, bonuses or raises based on performance, you’re probably going to get those promotions, those raises sooner than other people will,” said Feirer.

Feirer has expressed his admiration for working with students and plans to continue returning to AHS to give students his perspective on leadership and help them achieve their goals as leaders. He also provides his insight on just exactly how he helps students.

“I own and run a company called Group Dynamic, which I started while I was still a teacher. The mission of Group Dynamic is to help people develop leaders who motivate and teams who love working together,” Feirer explains.

The overarching goal of Group Dynamic is to enrich lives by helping adults establish qualities that will help them in life. They provide programs to groups of people to achieve this. Although the main demographic for Group Dynamic is adults, Feirer and his company have expressed their love for working with Ankeny students, one of their select student groups.

“If your goal is to make a lot of money, win awards, and get promotions, practice these leadership skills that you’ve developed and keep them up. Along the way, you will accidentally make the world a better place for others. If your big objective in life is to make the world a better place for others, these leadership techniques will put you in the position to do that,” Feirer said.