Xavier’s  junior Student Council, senior Student Council and Executive Board attended a Diocesan Catholic High School Leadership Conference at Notre Dame Preparatory on September 21.

The field trip was an opportunity for the Xavier Student Council to work with student councils from Brophy College Preparatory, Notre Dame Preparatory, St. Mary’s Catholic High School, Seton Catholic Preparatory and Bourgade Catholic High School.

Executive Board President, Susan Peters ‘17 said, “Leadership Day was the perfect opportunity for us to promote respectful behavior in our communities and share ideas with other student councils.”

Junior Student Council President Bisola Ojeniyi ‘18, agreed. “It was also super fun working with other types of people from different grades, gender and interest,” Ojeniyi said.

The keynote speaker was Xavier’s own two-time Olympic gold medalist, Coach Gillom, who spoke about the honor and responsibility of being a leader. In her speech, Coach Gillom described her most difficult challenge as a leader, athlete, and Christian was her decision to leave her small hometown in Mississippi, in pursuit of a basketball career in Europe.

“As leaders,” Coach Gillom said, “We must make bold decisions and work hard to see those decisions pay off.”

Coach Gillom’s speech was well received by the students. Tatum Riley ‘18 said, “It was inspirational to hear from a woman who has achieved so much success, yet remains so humble.”

Taylor Lawritson ‘17, who was inspired by Leadership Day,said, “I really liked [Leadership Day] because I think we were able to really get to know the other student councils which is going to be really helpful in facilitating the exchange of ideas to benefit our respective schools. Just from that one day we got so many new ideas that are going to be really fun to implement this year.”