J​​​​John Miller​

SALC has always been a very intensive class as some of the events have been done for years. However, when I took over six years ago I wanted to address three specific elements. First I wanted to teach leadership. We have added discussions, readings, debates, and papers that force students to investigate the nature of leadership and also recognize the style of leadership that fits each individual student. Having a class of the best leaders in the school can be prove difficult for our President and VP to lead leaders, but we work especially with those two to give them enough tools to succeed. We have had some success in molding leaders such as JMU Board of Supers representative, Norman Jones and many class presidents at schools like UVA, VT, JMU, and Claflin. Second, we have a very old school and I wanted to have our students improve the physical appearance of the school because I thought it would help school pride and spirit. We began by increasing grade worth for bulletin boards and also started to paint murals on the walls. The murals have been a huge success among the students. Third I wanted students to start change the culture of the school. While there has always been a great sense of community at URHS, participation had been falling since I graduated, to the point that the year before I took over, there were 250 people at the Homecoming Dance. Through an increased number of events that students cared about, such as BHM; as well as an increase in murals, gardens, and such; leading to an increase in school pride; and better communication; all led to increased participation. Last year we had a packed game and 750 students at the homecoming dance.