The Fort Dodge Community Schools Foundation is doing what it can to invest in the leaders of tomorrow through fundraising efforts to support the Leader in Me initiative in the schools.

Leader in Me is a K-12 curriculum that aims to empower students with the leadership and life skills they need to thrive in the 21st century. The model provides a character-building framework based on Franklin Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

School staff will reflect on how they use the seven habits and then model them for students by integrating the social-emotional learning around them into other lessons. Leader in Me aligns to the Iowa Department of Education’s social-emotional learning competencies released in December 2019.

“As we continue to prepare our students to be college and career ready, one important component we want to invest in is developing them as human beings,” said FDCSD Superintendent Jesse Ulrich. “I believe all of our students have the ability to be a leader in their own life and can work with and encourage greatness in others as well. The Leader in Me will provide us a platform to assist our students and staff in learning social and emotional skills that shift the paradigm on what real leadership looks like.”

In early 2020, the FDCS Foundation committed to supporting this program for the first two years at a cost of $55,000 per year for a total investment of $110,000.

“So far, it’s been well-received from our donors and from people I’ve talked to in the public,” said foundation Director Nik Moser. “People have been really receptive to it and it’s a program our community is really getting behind because it’s going to raise tremendous leaders in our school district to eventually become the future of Fort Dodge.”

So far, the foundation has raised about 70% of the funds needed for the program. Moser hopes to have the program fully-funded by the end of April.

Those interested in donating to the FDCS Foundation can email Moser at nmoser@fdcsfoundation.org.