Administrative+Internship

= A.B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School  = ** Internship Project: CAMP PACK ** **//“In only a few short months, Erin Swanson has implemented a program that is enhancing the leadership skills of more than 100 elementary aged-students and their collegiate-athlete mentors. Her efforts have helped to forge a successful K-20 partnership and created a model for creating confident, empowered and successful leaders!"//**  Dr. Matthew Ohlson, Director, C.A.M.P. Gator, University of Florida & Instructional Leadership Team, Florida Virtual School

School Overview
During the 2011-2012 school year, I served as the principal intern at [|A.B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School]in Raleigh, NC. A.B. Combs, a magnet school in the Wake County Public School System, serves a highly diverse population of 900 students in grades pre-Kindergarten through fifth. The hallmark of the school is the internationally renowned Leadership Model, which is grounded in the belief that building cooperative relationships and nurturing responsibility, kindness, and good judgement is the basis for creating a successful community of learners. The principles of Dr. Stephen R. Covey, internationally renowned consultant and author of the __7 Habits of Highly Effective People__, are embedded in the school's culture and guide the students, faculty, and staff in building the Leadership Model. A.B. Combs was the first [|Leader In Me] school; through this Franklin Covey program, the Leadership Model has been replicated at hundreds of schools across the globe.

Internship Project Background
As part of my Northeast Leadership Academy coursework during the year-long internship, I collected and analyzed data from a wide variety of sources, identified a "Problem of Practice," and developed and implemented a strategy to address this problem. During the 2011-2012 school year, nearly 200 students were re-assigned to A.B. Combs from other schools in the district. Many of these students struggled academically and behaviorally, and none were familiar with our Leadership Model. While we had a number of academic interventions in place to support these students, we did not have any formal programs to help them internalize the Leadership Model and build other skills critical for success in the 21st century. In collaboration with Dr. Matthew Ohlson, founder of the [|C.A.M.P. Gator] mentorship program at the University of Florida, as well as the North Carolina State University Athletic Department, I designed the Camp PACK program.

Camp PACK Program Summary[[image:nela1swanson/gator.wolf.jpg width="111" height="127" align="left"]]
The CampPACK program, which is outlined in detail on the Camp PACK Wiki, is a leadership mentoring program at A.B. Combs. Each week, 30 student athletes from North Carolina State University travel to the elementary school to mentor 65 A.B. Combs students during lunch. The A.B. Combs students were identified by their teachers as likely to benefit from engaging a series of leadership activities with a positive, successful collegiate mentor. Engaging in these, are aligned with Covey's __7 Habits of Highly Effective People__, enables both the students and the mentors to enhance their leadership capacity.

Presenting our Problem of Practice
On Saturday, April 21, 2012, we had the opportunity to present our "Problem of Practice" and the results of our evaluation at a poster presentation. Members of NELA Cohorts I and II, as well as family members and school and district leaders in the area, joined us to learn more about our internship projects and their impact on our schools and students.

= =

= =