Congratulations, Patti Lynch!
The Warren E. Shull Award is a national awards program honoring advisors throughout our nation for their dedication to student leadership. We are very proud of Patti’s accomplishments and service locally, nationally, and throughout the state. Patti has served on camp staff at the state level, hosted regional and state conferences, been a strong supporter of WASC programs, and has been the recipient of various other WASC prestigious awards. We wish her the best at the upcoming National Conference in June in Oklahoma City where the National winner is announced.
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“Leadership is the Ride of Your Life!” is the theme for the 2012 WASC JAM State Conference, but it can also be the theme for our own personal leadership journeys as well!
My name is Patti Lynch, and I am the advisor at Whitefish Bay Middle School and the Region IV JAM Advisor. Whitefish Bay MS is hosting this year’s state conference! WASC and the leadership lifestyle take us all on crazy rides – full of ups, downs, twists, and turns! We never know where our journeys will take us, but we do know it’s definitely worth the trip!
Like you, my own “leadership ride” has taken me more places than I could ever have imagined! WASC has opened many doors, provided incredible leadership opportunities, taught valuable life lessons, broadened horizons, and eradicated old comfort zones! The WASC has helped me grow personally and professionally. However, that is not the most amazing part …
WASC has inspired and given all of the above to STUDENTS! I have seen this organization transform and empower my own students and all of the students I’ve met along the journey. I KNOW I learn far more from students than they could ever learn from me. The students in WASC serve as role models and mentors, who are many years younger than me, but many years wiser. My greatest joy in being an advisor and a member of WASC is witnessing firsthand the leadership renaissance and the leadership journeys of young people!
It is through the students and the adults of the “WASC Family” that have inspired and led me to be the recipient of the WASC Warren E. Shull Middle Level Adviser of the Year Award. In February, I learned I was the recipient of the National Association of School Councils’ (NASC) Region IV Shull Award. I will represent Wisconsin and our NASC Region IV at the NASC Conference in Oklahoma City in June. I am among six finalists for the National Warren E. Shull Award.
This is a great honor, but it is not mine — this award is “ours”. We are a Family! Our award is because of the important work we do each and every day – and through our “Rides of Leadership” both personally and collectively, “We Make a World of Difference”! As an organization, we stand together for leadership and service, a true testament to Warren E. Shull, for whom this award is named.
Mr. Shull founded the NASC in 1931, and he believed that “leadership means service”. According to the NASC, the Shull Awards are “given to those who demonstrate exemplary character, leadership, and commitment to the development of young people as student leaders” – and that is what the WASC is all about! The standards and purpose of the award are exactly who we are and what we strive to do as leaders. All of us – students and adults together – personify and fulfill Mr. Shull’s legacy as well as our own as an organization. I am so excited, grateful, and humbled to have the opportunity of honoring and representing you and our “WASC Family” in June.
“Leadership is the Ride of Your Life!” The twists and turns, the ups and downs of our “Rides of Leadership” take us to new places, great achievements, many life lessons, and into many unknowns. We may not always know where we’re going, but we know it is always worth the trip! This is a ride we do not take alone for “We are Family”! We take this crazy ride together, and together, “We Make a World of Difference”!
