“So often leadership is about ego,” says Dunrovin Executive Director Jerome Meeds. “But servant leadership is about getting ourselves out of the way.” Learning to serve others is a core value taught in leadership training at Dunrovin.
Meeds introduced youth leadership programs in 2008. The DLITE (Dunrovin Leadership Institute and Teambuilding Experience) program gives students the opportunity to serve as summer camp counselors. “We develop each student’s strengths and motivate them to become better leaders within the context of their Christian lives,” he said.
The experience has had a lasting impact on both campers and leaders. DLITE student Katie Kostohris is one example:
“DLITE opened my mind to a way of thinking that I had never experienced before,” she said. “The training helped me to grasp a sense of self-control, motivation, confidence, integrity and work ethic. I learned what it actually means to have power and what it actually means to serve – to possess that control. But instead of using it for myself, to use it for the good of other people.”
In this video Jerome Meeds talks about how servant leadership is incorporated in leadership development training and the summer camp experience.