The 9th Annual
Lahser Communication and Leadership Conference
October 24 - 26, 2007
at Skyline Camp and Conference Center in Almont, Michigan

What is the LCLC and how did it get started?
Up to 70 student participants will attend each conference. The conference grew out of a program known as the Multicultural Retreat, which ran ten consecutive annual conferences prior to the development of the LCLC.

The Lahser Communication and Leadership Conference focuses on helping participants understand the rewards and responsibilities of leadership. The conference uses a variety of activities and initiatives designed to challenge participants to form new networks of friends and acquaintances, while emphasizing important leadership skills such as team-building, consensus, and team communication.

The three-day intensive program, at Skyline Camp and Conference Center near Almont, is hosted and facilitated by volunteer Lahser administrators, faculty, and staff – many who have been with the conference since its inception – who are committed to the potential that this opportunity provides participants to make a positive impact on school climate.

What makes the LCLC special?
What makes the LCLC truly special is the participants and facilitators. Students are nominated by administration, faculty and staff who are asked to identify sophomores and juniors who are influential in their peer groups and representative of the many and diverse identities that characterize the Lahser student body. A faculty selection committee then meets to choose the participants with an emphasis on creating a corps of conference participants that is most representative of the student body as a whole. The LCLC is not intended to be recognition or reward for demonstrated academic or leadership ability. It is a developmental program striving to reach as many peer groups as possible in the student body.

Volunteer faculty facilitate the conference's activities and initiatives. The conference goals of building positive networks between the school's peer-group leaders is intended to foster a more positive climate back at school and to empower potential student-leaders to be change agents for a more tolerant, and respectful, student body.

Many students cite their participation in the LCLC as one of the highlights of their days at Lahser High School. Students who previously did not associate with one another can be seen together at the school connecting their friends and acquaintances to a new, larger network of students. Lahser intends to take advantage now and in the future of the LCLC’s potential to bring diverse groups of students together, increase understanding, and build bridges within the student body as a whole.