The University Prep community is tired of LEAD. The aim of LEAD, according to the UPrep website, is to “provide students with a safe and productive space to interact with people who have different perspectives and opinions.” However commendable this desire is, throughout its execution, LEAD has failed to show real progress supporting students in the way that it describes. 

Firstly, LEAD chooses topics based on their own personal opinions on what is important for the community to discuss. I’ve heard topics often mocked by the greater UPrep community, like the discussion around “A” grades being viewed as unimportant, and even performative activism, describing it as a fluff topic that avoids impactful conversations. 

All of this then begs the question: why are the topics chosen not ones that seem central to the community’s concerns? Students have little faith in LEAD, and I’ve even heard a LEADer say they lead for a “free pass” from conversations, not for their belief in the program.

LEAD counteracts its goals with forced participation. In many of these discussions, some students feel unwelcome discussing certain topics, and isn’t the whole point to have a “safe” space to “empower” students? Let students empower themselves through the freedom of choice and expression.

The impact LEAD has by taking away school time is also costly for some students. LEAD is mandatory and abuses the fluidity of “community time” and restricts academic work time, which is not only stressed by adults in our community but impacts actual requirements for graduation, which would seem to be the goal of attending a school named University Prep.

Furthermore, LEAD lives in a limbo of being a mandatory activity yet at the same time, not contributing to graduation-focused academics, especially with so much stress around the college process and academic achievements.

Ultimately, if LEAD tries to change a community in the ineffective way that it has in the past, progress will remain distant. LEAD should aim to change, whether that be in influence or leadership. This change could look like sharing data on LEAD satisfaction rates and polling the community on discussion topics. I support LEAD’s aim to “learn how to interact with people who have different perspectives and opinions,” but there’s a long way to go. What is in place isn’t working, and it would truly benefit UPrep to have a successful LEAD program.