Students will investigate what makes community leadership effective by studying CADA standards, leadership styles, personality profiles, communication, questioning, and evidence synthesis. Through lessons, guest speakers, a council meeting, and interviews with local partners such as city leaders, public safety agencies, foundations, unions, and youth organizations, teams will examine how leaders solve problems and serve others. Advisor check-ins, formative assessments, and peer critique will guide revision as students analyze how personality, mood, tone, and word choice influence leadership. Students will present evidence-based findings, connect them to leadership standards and the IB Learner Profile, evaluate their own growth, and prepare their work for the Kennedy Expo audience of peers, families, and community partners.

Students will analyze California CADA leadership standards, personality profiles, and leadership-style inventories to identify qualities of effective leadership. They will develop strong interview questions, communicate empathetically with community partners, and synthesize interviews, observations, and research as evidence of how leaders solve problems and serve others. Students will collaborate, use advisor and peer feedback to revise their work, and evaluate how personality, mood, tone, and word choice affect leadership effectiveness. They will present evidence-based findings, connect conclusions to leadership standards and the IB Learner Profile, reflect on their own leadership skills, and prepare their work for the Kennedy Expo.

Students will create a leadership inquiry portfolio containing council-meeting or guest-speaker notes, a leadership-style inventory, personality profile, research synthesis, interview questions, and evidence from a selected community partner. Teams will interview leaders from local government, public safety, foundations, service organizations, unions, community centers, or youth programs, then develop an evidence-based community leadership profile. After peer review, advisor check-ins, and revision, students will present their findings in a format of their choice, connecting evidence to CADA standards, leadership styles, effective communication, and the IB Learner Profile. Each student will also produce a reflection evaluating how personality, mood, tone, and word choice influence leadership, their own skills and collaboration, and the leader’s wider community impact; polished products may be showcased at the Kennedy Expo for families, peers, and profiled partners.

Launch with a live or recorded community-leadership forum featuring representatives from La Palma PD and FD, City Council, Community Foundation, Community Services, Cypress organizations, Kiwanis, trade unions, family resource centers, Project SAY, Youth in Government Day, the Tiger Woods Learning Foundation, Erika Sanchez, and other city leaders. Before attending a council meeting or questioning the panel, teams study CADA standards, complete a leadership-style inventory, and develop open-ended questions about a real community challenge. Students gather evidence about how personality, mood, tone, word choice, and communication shape leaders’ decisions, then compare observations through a peer-reviewed synthesis and advisor check-in. Close by introducing the class presentation, personal leadership reflection, IB Learner Profile connections, and the opportunity to revise selected work for the Kennedy Expo audience.

At the second-semester Kennedy Expo, students will share their community-leader profiles with peers, families, school staff, and the leaders and partner organizations they studied. Students may present through a live talk, documentary, podcast, digital story, or visual display, using interview and research evidence to connect leadership actions to CADA standards, leadership styles, and the IB Learner Profile. Visitors will ask questions and provide feedback on the students’ evidence, communication, and conclusions. Each student will include a reflection on how personality, mood, tone, and word choice influence leadership effectiveness and how their own leadership skills developed.