Dear Admin, a Leadership Letter

Dear Administrators of SADD members,

To the dedicated school administrators out there in SADD Nation, I imagine that, in your position, you look at your school(s) as an opportunity for life-changing experiences that will carry everyone inside well beyond the years they occupy it. I imagine that you seek to do just that by creating spaces for impressionable learning that elevate the educational impact on the lives of students, teachers, and staff. I also imagine that students often don’t acknowledge this work. Instead, they only remember teachers and their teaching antics, crediting their classroom experiences for the advancements they end up making throughout their lives—at least until they have some years under their belts.

Case in point: I vividly remember my ninth-grade English class at McHenry East High School in McHenry, Illinois. My teacher, Ms. Roberts, was a high-energy teacher who, despite teaching such a class, took an interactive approach to teaching by injecting fun, using modern-day resources, and keeping the books closed more than opened. It was, without a doubt, a different way of teaching English; more different than any other teacher before or after, in my experience. The impression it made on me, and still does all these years later (we will keep that exact number of years for another conversation), is a testament to the impact it had on my life - one that I even try to incorporate in my career every day. All that said, I may not have known it at the time, but looking back, thanks to age, knowledge, and experience, I know now that her creative impressionable teaching antics were not solely because of her alone but included the support of administrators who wanted life-changing experiences that elevated the educational impact for those who walked through the halls.

Ms. Roberts was there impacting hundreds - maybe thousands - of students partly because of the administrators who gave her the opportunity and space to be her and do her thing. The support they gave her, and the support you currently give your teachers and staff, was one that proved behind-the-scenes foundation-building can make or break the space you are trying to create for impressionable learning and the educational impact on students.

Here at SADD, as a student-led and peer-to-peer organization, we consistently elevate youth voices but sometimes miss the opportunity to highlight, credit, and engage those who help create the foundation that allows for these students’ internal passion and focus to shine, ultimately having a positive impact on themselves and their peers. I want to thank our school administrators personally; we cannot do this work without you. Your role in SADD Nation is important and deserves credit and acknowledgment. I look forward to building on this together even more as the years go on.

By the way, I don’t know what happened to Ms. Roberts, but I know she was there at McHenry East High School for a long time. She was always the off-the-wall teacher who everyone wanted, thinking her class would be easy. In reality, it was one that forced us to think outside the box, pushed us beyond our comfort zone, and allowed us to find our own place in the learning environment—in an English class, nonetheless. Big shoutout to her.

In partnership,

Scott Myers, M.A., ACNP

Executive Director

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Ms. Roberts would have been a great SADD advisor! Do you know a great educator or admin that would make an amazing SADD advisor or ally? Ask them to join and help get your chapter going. Find more resources for advisors through MySADD courses.