On Feb. 20, the 2nd annual NLCC African American Male Leadership Summit was held at Round Lake Beach Cultural and Civic Center. Twenty male students from Grayslake Central High School attended the leadership summit, and forty students were nominated.

According to activities director Dianna Repp, the event is to “[make] sure that our African American students feel supported, welcomed and have these leadership opportunities.” Repp continued explaining that “the purpose is to teach leadership and foster it because the students that are invited already have leadership qualities, or [they] are trying to reign those qualities in and have a run with it, and we have freshmen going that maybe don’t know their potential yet.”

The summit was a full school day starting with refreshments, an introduction, three interactive sessions, and ended with a keynote speaker Aaron Clark, media relations coordinator for the Chicago Bears. Clark talked about his life experience and how he became successful.

Junior Michael Paul explained, “At the African American leadership summit, I met with all the schools in the NLCC conference, and then we split into groups to talk about leadership goals and what we’ll do in the future.” He then went more into depth of what he learned. “I learned that your mind gives up before your body does. I learned a lot of leadership, things I should know to be a good leader… a good role model for other people.”

Another student who attended, junior Amarion Coleman commented on how the summit was beneficial to him as a African American student at Grayslake Central. “It creates a brotherhood, in a way, and [helps me] relate to other people…since I can’t relate to most people here [at GCHS],” said Coleman.