ELC History by: Evren J. Gunduz

My passion for leadership and attitude development was forged during my four glorious years of undergrad at UMass Amherst as a trumpet player in the massive and award winning 350 member Minuteman Marching Band. After pursuing and being accepted to a leadership position as a part of the band’s field staff and trumpet rank leader, my life was changed forever.  I received my first taste of formal positive leadership training from our band director and the guru of student leadership, George N. Parks. My mentor and role model, George’s beliefs and teachings about leading life with a positive attitude and living with enthusiasm, passion and energy,  resonated  in my heart .  As leaders in the band, his philosophy was that we were valued simply by making band and life special for others.  I gave it my all and discovered that living as a positive leader was not only easily achievable but also highly fulfilling and added an element of enjoyment and satisfaction to life that I never knew existed; just by making life enjoyable for others. 

Following graduation, I was offered a job at Hopkinton Middle School in Hopkinton, MA as a grade 8 science teacher. Originally wanting to teach high school, I accepted the job as an opportunity to work with an age group that most teachers feared (including me) and knew little about.  Keeping in mind how much of an impact the leadership education had on my life, I decided to weave it into our science curriculum.  I had no idea how the 13 and 14 year old mind would react but it being such a personal passion, I dove right in with the awesome support of our administration.

180 epic school days later, the fateful moment came when then 8^th grader Keith Love made the Enjoy Life Club (ELC) tangible. The following school year the ELC’s inception fueled an 8^thgrade student leadership team, similar to the field staff of the UMass Marching Band and the IGNITE Team was born!  A dynamic nexus, the 8^th grade IGNITES mentor incoming 6^th graders, work to positively impact the school’s climate and culture, and receive the ELC’s leadership education.  

After working with middle and high school students for the past seven years to research, design, enhance and implement the ELC’s leadership curriculum, the ELC Leadership Academy is here!  I absolutely love educating middle, high school and college students on the arts of positive leadership.  The Academy is not your typical one day, one time motivational speech or seminar.  Genuine and instilled education takes time, consistency and practice!  Our Academy students go through a transformative and powerful sixteen hour leadership education experience filled with interactive, hands-on, high energy and life-changing activities, discussions, demonstrations, videos, and talks.  Graduates become members of our ever growing Enjoy Life Club working to lead life with self awareness, a positive attitude, empathy, enthusiasm and an intrinsic drive to empower and make life special for others.  We like to work with a large portion of a school’s student body rather than have one or two students from many different schools attend an off-campus conference or retreat. Authentic, tangible, and widespread change significantly occurs when a group of people from within the same institution are empowered through the same experience.  Our Academy students become a powerful and positive nexus in their respective schools, connected and supported by their shared awareness, knowledge and growth.  They walk through school, look at their peers and feel a mutual bond created through positive leadership.  As a result, Academy students hold each other accountable and have a heightened awareness of their moral responsibility toward one another!

The First Leadership Academy

Our Leadership Academy is the heart, energy and life-force that inspires, feeds and drives the Enjoy Life Club!  It all started back during the summer of 2006 in a small town gymnasium in Hopedale, Massachusetts. The first ELC leadership camp was a one day event attended by thirty seven dedicated students from Hopkinton, Hopedale and Milford public schools.  Run entirely by Evren Gunduz’s fifteen member 8th grade leadership team, this motivated and special IGNITE Team worked with students three years their elder educating them on the many facets of positive leadership.  Five years, countless trial seminars, leadership camps, IGNITE teams, retreats, masses of research, internships, and thousands of positively impacted students later, the envisioned Enjoy Life Club Leadership Academy is born.  This incredibly comprehensive Academy is as dynamic and motivating as it is innovative and educational! 

Our Belief

The ELC believes that “when adolescents are given a voice in their leadership, properly educated and  empowered as a team, they will have the capacity and capability to make a positive and substantial cultural impact on their peers, teams, organizations, schools, families and communities.” ~Evren Joseph Gunduz, ELC Founder/CEO

Be Awesome!