Photo by Heidi Kniseley

Video Production captures drone footage of the DPS campus while students swarm to observe. Mission’s VAPA department’s main mission was to represent the spirit that Double Peak’s Leader-in-Me program spreads throughout the school. Assistant Principal Kylie Lewis says the goal is for students to think, “‘As long as I set my goals, then [I] can be successful as [I] move on in life.”

On March 7, the media arts department took a field trip to Double Peak K-8 School (DPS) to film and inspire. Aside from being a proactive learning environment, DPS strives to prepare students for conquering the world and reaching for the stars through the Leader-in-Me program, focused on different strategies of social achievement. The MHHS Video Production team hopes to represent this goal by featuring students in a video about the program.
“We are filming for the Leader-in-Me video. It’s going to show that their hard work has not been for nothing and to show that they are on the right path to success,” sophomore and Video Production editor Savannah Stephens said. “[It’s being shown to] The Double Peak community, mostly parents of the students that we featured in the video.”
The video is planned to go over all aspects of the program, spanning from the seven habits all students at the school practice to the importance of it overall to staff, students, and parents.
“We’ve been practicing Leader-in-Me here since our school started and it’s a [form of] character education. It’s about implementing leadership in our daily life: being proactive rather than reactive, beginning with the end in mind, synergizing so that we have a nice, well-balanced life. It’s based on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, written by Stephen Covey. It empowers them in knowing that they can be a leader [and] believing in themselves,” DPS assistant principal Kylie Lewis said.
Leader-in-Me has been thoroughly implemented in every corner of the Double Peak campus. This notion is one central feature Video Production aspires to highlight in the film; they’ve ventured through every foot of the school to find how the seven habits help all grow, whether it be the way in which students learn or how the school supports their mental well-being.
“For us, as the counseling department, really the way that we support the Leader-in-Me program is through our skill-building. We do that one on one with students if they’re having trouble with peers or if they need help with their confidence-building,” DPS counselor Lori Lindsey said.
The partnership between Leader-in-Me and DPS’s counseling department is just one strong example of the connection the school has with the goal of creating strong spirits that, when sent into the intense complexity that is modern society, will not only survive, but thrive.
“In all of our support groups, it’s skill building for conflict resolution, making friends, [and] social skills—things like that where we really challenge them to figure out how to solve problems and, in doing so, how to think win-win. All of those skills that we’re teaching them now they definitely can take through their lives,” Lindsey said.
In the end, all can agree that Leader-in-Me has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on Double Peak, including Video Production at Mission Hills; therein lies the reason they have devoted so much to create the K-8 school’s video: to spread the very positivity Leader-in-Me nurtures to the whole community and beyond.