Siegfried Youth Leadership Program® (SYLP) stayed busy this fall with an educator dinner in Delaware and in-school sessions in both Chicago, IL and Cleveland, OH. Designed for students in middle and high school, SYLP is charting a new course on how to empower young people to be leaders in their own lives. In all its initiatives and efforts, SYLP is guided by its higher purpose, which is to help young people transform themselves into better individual leaders to enrich their lives and inspire positive change in their communities!

In support of that higher purpose, The Siegfried Group recently hosted a special dinner for 24 Delaware area teachers and administrators, focused on the overall alignment of our expectations for SYLP. Some of the attendees were SYLP ‘veterans’ and some were new to the program and what it entails. Our team spent time discussing SYLP’s higher purpose, reviewing the recently-released SYLP impact report, and sharing insights on how SYLP can be brought into classrooms on a rhythmic basis.

During this dinner, Siegfried also recognized our “super user” teachers: Kelly Bench of Hodgson Vo-Tech High School, Patti Pyle of Howard High School of Technology, and Robyn Howton of Mount Pleasant High School. All three teachers have made it a priority to bring their students to multiple SYLP events, engage in leadership conversations in the classroom, and truly value the program.

“There’s no leadership conference like this anywhere in the 17 years that I’ve been teaching,” said Bench.

Going deeper in Chicago

In mid-October, SYLP held in-school sessions at Sullivan High School and Gage Park High School, two schools that attend our first SYLP event in Chicago, IL earlier this year. Martin Marasigan and Taniqua Bailey hosted our sessions, focused on character ethic and mindset, and were excited about the opportunity to lead a more personal program for the 215 students who were in attendance. One student shared, "I really liked how SYLP focuses on self-knowledge activities and the theme of success."

Moving into Cleveland

For the first time, we brought SYLP into Cleveland, where the theme of mindset really made an impact on this group of students. Jen Kotik, Josh Molina, Vinny Smith, and Cory Treharn hosted sessions about courage and relationships for 50 students between Euclid Middle School and West Shore Career Tech.

We look forward to continuing to work with these teachers and students as SYLP expands its reach.  

Join us on March 12

For those educators and administrators in the Delaware area, we invite you and your students to join us on March 12 for our next SYLP event, which will be held at the University of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center. Learn more and pre-register for this upcoming event!