How It All Began…
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 forever changed. I received my first taste of formal positive leadership training from our band director and the guru of student leadership, George N. Parks. Serving as 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. It added an element of enjoyment and satisfaction to life that I never knew existed simply by making life enjoyable for others.
My First Job
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 8th graders Keith Love and Tom Coburn made the Enjoy Life Club (ELC) tangible. The following school year the ELC’s inception fueled an 8thgrade student leadership team, similar to the field staff of the UMass Marching Band and the IGNITE Team was born! A dynamic nexus of students, the 8th grade IGNITES mentor incoming 6th graders, work to positively impact the school’s climate and culture, and receive the ELC’s leadership education.
Our first ELC program – The 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, MA. 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 just one year their elder educating them on the many facets of positive leadership. Many years, countless trial seminars, leadership camps, IGNITE teams, retreats, masses of research, internships, and thousands of positively impacted students later, the envisioned organization, ELC Leadership Education has arrived. This incredibly comprehensive enterprize 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
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