Student LeadershiP

In the context of the broader theme of freedom, St. Augustine referenced what he called a “community of virtue.”  Augustine illustrated by saying that a slave or addict, by definition, cannot free himself.  He needs others outside of himself (especially the ultimate Other – God) to break the bonds that enclose him.  “Communities of virtue” help each individual to break free from the shackles and weakness of sin and foolishness and form new patterns of intentionality.

Student leadership opportunities are designed to foster a community of virtue at ALC. Student leadership opportunities include:

• Senior Leadership – Through the mentoring of the headmaster, the senior class establishes a spiritual theme that they then present and implement throughout the school year via such means as the summer high school boys’ and girls’ trips, the high school fall retreat, and the Friday student prayer groups. As the high school students embrace the spiritual theme for the year, there are numerous opportunities for the high school students to then model the theme for the middle school and elementary students.
• Student-Teacher Internships – For those high school students who may be considering a vocation in education or related field, there are a number of student-teacher internships available with the ALC teachers. These include serving as writing mentors, directing the elementary and middle school plays along with parent mentors, assisting the music and art teachers, and working with the first and second grade teacher.

---

"If" by Rudyard Kipling (1943)

If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!