In the past, Horizon Honors students turned to the “College, Career, and Life” (CCL) elective taught by Christi Britt when seeking advice and instruction in preparing for the future. The class has been said to be especially beneficial to the students taking it, and essential to the well-being of every high-schooler. However, the formation of the “Be A Leader Foundation,” a club founded by junior Angie Morin and sponsored by high school English teacher Mariah Driggs, may win the favor of secondary students in the near future, or it may develop into an extension of CCL.

The attendance for the first meeting of the club included a fair-sized group of primarily juniors who were interested in what the club had to offer. According to Morin, the Be A Leader Foundation may sound pretentious, but it is simply another form of preparation aid. If all goes as planned, the club will allow students to expand on their career goals and explore new college options (both in-state and out of state), as well as encourage members to participate in various university-related and adulthood-oriented seminars held once a month at select colleges.

To many students, the Be A Leader Foundation may sound considerably similar to the CCL class, and thus evokes a shared question: What’s the difference? “CCL is more along the lines of ‘here’s what you have right now and how you can go forward with what you have’, whereas [Be A Leader Foundation] is ‘here’s what you have and how can you improve on that to get into the colleges you want,’” said Morin. In other words, Be A Leader Foundation doesn’t focus solely on identifying skills and picking a college or career based on them. Instead, it urges students to hone present skills and develop new ones through the character-building opportunities, such as the college fairs and workshops that the club offers. Morin has also claimed that the CCL class is “specific” to the objectives promoted by the state of Arizona, whereas the club equips students with the information necessary to accomplish all of their future goals. Furthermore, Morin states that the Be A Leader Foundation is more of a team than individual effort, as individuals who choose to join the club will be put in positions that will stimulate bonding between members. “It’s a lot of fun,” concludes Morin, “not just a lot of work.”

In response to the formation of the club, CCL teacher, Christi Britt, supports the club’s future efforts, saying that “The more opportunities and experiences we can give our students, the better prepared they will be for planning their futures.”  Mariah Driggs, the sponsor of the Be A Leader Foundation, concurs in declaring that,“Students who are unable to take the CCL class or want to learn more about college readiness before they take it, could come to Be A Leader as a step towards that.  Also, Be A Leader promotes many outside of school activities hosted by the foundation. Those activities would allow Horizon students to discuss college readiness concepts with students from other schools.”

Whether or not the club proves to be as popular as CCL is unknown, but what is certain is that no student at Horizon Honors will be without adequate guidance in their quest of college-readiness, especially with the combined support of CCL and the Be A Leader Foundation.