Cary school’s new program gives students tools for leadership skills

The private Catholic school’s program is a passion project created by principal, music teacher

Equipped with zero budget and a book, two educators at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School in Cary came together and launched a program this year with a mission to teach their students what leadership truly looks like.

“We developed this program after realizing that adults often tell students to ‘be a leader,’ without giving them much context for what that actually means,” Principal Nick Satterlee said.

Satterlee teamed up with music teacher Brett Fisher to create the program for their sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Built around Amy Morin’s book “13 Things Strong Kids Do: Think Big, Feel Good, Act Brave,” they focus on giving students tools and teaching them how to use them.

“It’s not just talk the talk, but how to walk the walk,” Fisher said.

The Cary private school, located at 416 First St., serves over 200 students from prekindergarten through eighth grade.

For the leadership program, each trimester focuses on a different grade. Sixth-graders focus on how to navigate middle school, while a sense of identity is the main goal for the seventh-graders, Satterlee said. The eighth-graders are placed in the final trimester to help them prepare for high school.

“A lot of my kids have been at my school since they were 3 years old,” he said. “It’s like sending a family member off.”

Fisher and Satterlee regularly bring in guest speakers to share real-world examples of challenges and leadership qualities.

Art therapist Jose Alcantara came to the class in April to speak about how to balance social and alone time. Using a string taped to a piece of paper, Alcantara challenged how students will utilize their limited free time between solitary and social activities while emphasizing the importance of both categories.

Often, the guest speakers are school alumni, parents of current students and people right in the community.

Satterlee hopes that the program will help the students grow self-confidence. He said he has already seen it happen in small ways, like students going up to teachers and even writing proposals for changes they would like to see in the school.

“You can’t measure self-confidence,” he said. “We’ve found that students were much more independent because we’re trying to teach them those skills before high school.”

Fisher, who has been a music teacher at the school for three years, also uses his own story as an example of leadership. He previously worked as a Chicago sports journalist, winning seven Emmy Awards, before retiring from the career in order to spend more time with his family.

He uses his story to remind students that it’s OK not to know what the future will look like, and that every experience is something they can learn from. He will often show a picture of his children with his Emmy trophies sitting in the background on the piano, and ask them what’s important.

“It’s the people in the picture is what’s important,” he said.

Fisher now incorporates his love for sports by being a youth baseball coach. Through coaching and teaching music, he finds meaningful ways to help students grow.

“It gives the confidence for kids to believe in themselves,” he said.

Exactly how the program will grow in the future is still unknown to Satterlee and Fisher. Satterlee hopes to one day add a community service segment, or for other schools to be inspired to create their own leadership program.