By Traci Newell

joe hu/town crier Jeremy Liewer, co-teacher of the Blach leadership elective, instructs students as they transport cans collected from their food drive. The students collected nearly 1,500 cans to donate to the needy.

Fifteen eighth-grade students at Blach Intermediate School are working together, through a leadership class, to bring spirit to their campus.

The leadership class is a new elective available to eighth-graders. The leadership students work closely with the student council to plan events.

“In many ways we are the operational arm of the student council,” said Suzanne Chandler, leadership class co-teacher. “We are the worker bees.”

This year the leadership students planned and organized Spirit Week activities, a Halloween dance, luncheons for new students, activities for Friday lunches and a food drive.

“It’s a very empowering opportunity,” Chandler said. “They are very enthusiastic and always want to contribute. They are discovering their opinion matters.”

Chandler said the students in the class are very focused and self-directed. Usually the class meets, the co-teachers, Chandler and Jeremy Liewer, speak for a few moments and then the students disperse to work on their various planning tasks. The leadership students have a large say in the projects they choose. Students’ interests usually determine the direction taken in class.

On any day of the week, students are painting signs promoting the latest school event or meeting to discuss what the school community would enjoy most.

“I do believe the school has a strong sense of spirit because of the activities these students have put together,” Chandler said. “The students have made a very significant contribution in that regard.”

The class promotes the importance of giving back to the community. At the beginning of the month, the class collected 1,500 cans to donate to the Community Services Agency in Mountain View. For Christmas, the students will run a toy drive to benefit local charities.

“I hope this sparks some interest in the students to run for student government at the high school level,” Chandler said. “I hope we light a fire within them to work for the community as well.”

Liewer said working with such enthusiastic students is incredible.

“To see the smiles on their faces when they plan an event, put it on and then have the success of the event,” he said, “to see them happy and proud of themselves, as a teacher that is one of the more rewarding things in the world.”

Chandler said she appreciates watching the students grow in the class.

“Its really rewarding to see some of the students, who perhaps hadn’t found their niche, just blossom here,” Chandler said.