McDowell talks ‘Leader in Me’ with Rotarians

It isn't often that someone can send a 9-year-old as a replacement speaker and it works perfectly.
Kim Cummins was at one point scheduled to serve as guest speaker for Tuesday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Crowley. When she realized she wouldn’t be able to make it, she called upon not only a girl with great knowledge of the Leader in Me Program, but a program participant.
Leah McDowell has long-since been one of Martin Petitjean Elementary School’s shining examples of the great success the program has created. That’s why she has spoken at educational symposiums with 500 or 1,000 educators sitting, staring and listening to her every word.
For some that would be a daunting class, for others impossible, for McDowell, it was just another day. Needless to say, speaking to about 50 people at a Rotary Club of Crowley meeting was nothing, comparatively speaking. So, Tuesday, she spoke enthusiastically about the Leader in Me program.
She spoke about the “7 Habit of Highly Effective People” – the basis of the program – and her favorite habit and least favorite.
“One day when I was in church, my priest gave us a present and in the present was this book, ‘Daily Reflections of Highly Effective People’,” she said speaking of the habit that gives her the most trouble – be proactive. The reflection spoke of how some read proactiveness as being pushy, intense and more.
“‘But that isn’t the case at all, proactive people aren’t pushy, they’re smart.’
“Some might say that about me ... sometimes bossy, but what I feel like is, I’m not bossy, I’m just a leader.”
McDowell, who is a fourth grader transferring to South Rayne Elementary School this year, also knows that while South Rayne is not a Leader in Me School, the program will stay with her and many of her classmates.
“Even though I’m leaving Martin Petitjean, I’ll still have the 7 Habits with me because once you step foot into Martin Petitjean, they make sure you know, remember and love the 7 Habits,” she said.
McDowell is also using the habits outside of school, and, even her mom jokes that they are making an impression with the whole family before returning to the serious, and great, implications it has had in their home.
“(McDowell) has continued to grow even through the summer,” said Raven Babineaux. “The program has given her a confidence that I don’t think I could have given her with being relaxed with people. It equips the kids with things that sometimes we can’t give them and they bring it home .”
The program, which does feature a bit of a price tag, is partially funded, for some of the schools anyway, through grant money from United Way of Acadiana. It has also become a win-win for United Way of Acadiana which continues to promote the program and hopes to one day see it in all of its parishes’ schools, from kindergartens through high schools.
Currently, Acadia Parish has three Leader in Me schools: Martin Petitjean Elementary and Central Rayne Kindergarten in Rayne and Ross Elementary in Crowley.
This school year (2015-16), Iota Elementary will come on board and Crowley Kindergarten and Church Point Elementary will begin book work on the program before joining next school year.
North Crowley Elementary and South Crowley Elementary also feature similar programs at their schools.
The primary school age has been an effective outlet for the program as it seems to be retained well by the students in those grades.
“Since it’s going through the primary age groups, I think it just sticks,” said Babineaux. “Certain things you never forget and even if we don’t reach them in the where I teach in the sixth, seventh, eighth/middle school level, it’s still there.”
It’s definitely staying with Babineaux and has been with her since Day One. As a first grader, she wrote a lengthy paragraph promoting the program to her mother’s friend who is a teacher in Jeff Davis Parish.