Summit Park Leadership Community 2012-2013

The Summit Park Leadership Community engages Drury University students in an experiential learning environment that focuses on the principles of leadership while incorporating the value of community service. Teams of students focus an entire year of residency to design, organize and implement a project based on the idea that leadership is a purposive process that is ultimately concerned with fostering change. Each year students propose to live within this community. It is a competitive process which in this past year, 68 students applied with only 40 students selected. The students will each spend 30 hours per year with the listed agency providing a total of 1,200 hours given back to the Springfield region.

Art Feeds - BLOG

Micha Willis, Marissa Brown, Kayleen Spear, Laura Westfall, Carlos Zambrano, Trevor Wellman, Jacob Nentrup, Brandon White

Faculty/Staff Advisor: John Taylor

Goal: For our project, we chose to help the non-profit organization Art Feeds. With our leadership efforts for Art Feeds, we hope to raise awareness about the organization on Drury’s campus and throughout the community of Springfield, MO. We also hope to increase the organization's success by volunteering at Art Feeds headquarters and its local school campuses.

Bailey Alternative High School - BLOG

Haley Jackson, Rachel Patton, Grace Lounsbury, Sarah Smith

Faculty/Staff Advisor: Gerard Nadeau

Goal: Our project is to work with Bailey Alternative High School in enhancing their performing space. This will culminate in the design and build of a collapsible stage for the school. Bailey High School currently does not currently have a stage, and the school plans on moving in a few years, so they would like a stage they can take with them.

Rivendale - BLOG

Kaleigh Jurgensmeyer,  Ashley Marmouget,  Samantha Williams,  Mia Young

Faculty/Staff Advisor: Mark Lawley

Goal:  Our project will be working with Rivendale, part of the Springfield Special School District.  This school is dedicated to helping children with a wide range of learning disabilities, including autism.  Our main goal will be to lead an after school program aimed at helping some of the older students develop better social skills.  Some ideas of discussion will include how to introduce yourself, how to ask someone out on a date, and even how to respectfully deal with confrontations.  We want to raise awareness about autism and help get the community involved with the cause.  Many only see autism as a severe social disorder—but it is actually a spectrum disorder that affectsnearly 1.5 million people in the United States.  Hopefully, through this project we can change people’s view on what autism actually is and increase community understanding about this disorder.

Community Partnership of the Ozarks - BLOG

Emily Dicus,  Alexis Dutt,  Taylor Rice,  Jacy Shaw,  Kevin Abernathy,  Matt Armstrong,  Matt Lytle,  Aaron Tucker

Faculty/Staff Advisor: Mr. Greg Booker

Goal:  Our prospective Summit Team has chosen to work with Community Partnership of the Ozarks. They are a non-profit organization whose mission is "To facilitate and promote positive community growth through collaboration, program administration, and resource development.”  We plan to work with the schools that have an established relationship with Community Partnership in the Drury area such as Boyd Elementary and Pipkin Middle School, hoping to assist in making these promises a reality. Our thought is not specific but “dynamic service,” dedicated to the purpose of the Partnership. We have presented ourselves as flexible and willing to serve. Our hope is to respond to the needs that they specifically present to us in an effective and impactful way.

Boyd Elementary - BLOG

Jorge Nadal, Jandui Reyes Barreiros, Juan Esteban Matheus, Juan Fernando Calderon

Faculty/Staff Advisor: Charlyn Ingwerson

Goal:   Our project will involve our community partner over at Boyd Elementary where we would be exposed to a group of 6-8 5th graders. The goal of our project is to visit the school as not only role models, but male role models. Most of the boys we will be working with don’t have a fatherly figure present in their everyday lives and we aim to become this figure. We humbly accept this is quite the task and we do realize that for this project to be successful passion is needed and can honestly say that we have this.

Green County Botanical Center - BLOG

Jessica Bliss, Megan Hasenmueller, Katelyn Wojan

Faculty/Staff Advisor: Dr. Rebecca Denton

Goal: The Botanical Center of Springfield was established in order to enhance people’s lives through plant demonstrations and education. We have a goal to influence members of the Drury and Springfield community in having a greater appreciation for nature’s beauty. Through our leadership efforts we hope to develop a more environmentally thoughtful community.

C.A.R.E. Animal Shelter - BLOG

Deidre Hardy,  Kayla Honeycutt,  Caitlin Lauer,  Cathy Robinson

Faculty/Staff Advisor: Dr. Jeanie Allen

Goal: Our project is the Castaway Animal Rescue Effort animal shelter, or C.A.R.E. Our goal is to help advertise this no-kill shelter to the Springfield community and our Drury peers, and also volunteer our time at the shelter. Additionally, we hope to organize fundraisers for C.A.R.E., and perhaps hold a clothing drive in order to donate these items to the C.A.R.E. thrift store. We are also planning to assist C.A.R.E. with their mobile adoptions. Our project will be interactive not only with the animals, but with the community. Overall, we hope to help make the animals’ time at the shelter as comfortable as possible, and help many of them find loving homes.