When it comes to keeping the school spirit and morale up, making sure that a school’s environment is positive and healthy to ensure that a student succeeds is crucial.

A Youth Leadership Summit was held this school year on Aug. 30. De Soto High School representatives were chosen by social worker Robert Kordalski.

Five CatPRIDE students went to the Youth Leadership Summit at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Overland Park, including sophomores Emily Bell and Emma Klingler, junior Emily Kresin and seniors Lauren Stanton and Chase O’Bannon. 

“Mr. Joe [Kordalski] contacted each of us directly,” Stanton said. “He talked to people he thought would be positive influences throughout the school and invited them to go with.”

According to Bell, the conference was a melting pot of different topics that affect DHS today.

“We did a lot of things that focused on ways to make our school better … like the vaping problem, reducing mental health stigma and just being a nice person in general,” Bell said.

There were different kinds of lectures at the Youth Leadership Summit.

“It started with a speaker talking to us about the dangers of vaping. We learned about all the different types and ways of vaping and how it can affect your body,” Klingler said. “After that, we went and did individual sessions in different classrooms. We learned about various things such as the mental health stigma and the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Finally, we met with our school group again to talk about what we would like to do this school year in our club.”

Klingler believes that the summit was a success in educating students about modern day problems.

“It was a very enlightening experience for me to go to the Youth Leadership Summit,” Klingler said. “I really hope I can go again next year.”