Speak with confidence
Learn to share an idea even when you’re unsure how it will land. Practice listening carefully, asking a useful question, and disagreeing without putting someone down.
Build trust as a teammate
Notice who hasn’t had a chance to contribute. Keep the commitments you make, and learn how to address a problem with a teammate before it affects the whole group.
Make choices under pressure
Think through what matters to you before a difficult moment arrives. Practice responding to peer pressure, speaking up for someone else, and owning a mistake when you get it wrong.
About the Pathway
Imagine your group is choosing an idea for a class project. Everyone seems ready to move on, but one classmate hasn’t spoken. You could call for a vote, share your own preference, or pause and ask what they think. You don’t need to be in charge to make that choice. What you do next can change whose ideas the group hears. The High School Leadership Pathway gives you practice with moments like these. Across five courses and 30 lessons, you’ll begin with your own habits, learn to work through challenges with others, and put what you learn to use in your school and community.
John “Trey” Kailunas III, MS (Doctoral Candidate)
In sales leadership and coaching, I’ve learned to pay attention to what happens after a leader gives direction. Can someone make the next decision on their own? Will they bring bad news forward while there is still time to act? What do they see the leader do when a commitment is missed? I founded the American Institute of Leadership on the belief that Leadership is for Everyone. My graduate work in management, strategy, and leadership at Michigan State University helped shape this pathway. I designed it to give experienced leaders room to examine their own decisions and the conditions they create for others to lead.
Explore the Curriculum
1. Lead Yourself First Identify your strengths, recognize habits that hold you back, and take responsibility for what you can control. Learn to build confidence by measuring your progress against who you were before. 2. Communication and Confidence Find your voice and learn when to make room for someone else’s. Practice listening before speaking, noticing what your body language communicates, and giving or receiving feedback in a difficult conversation. 3. Teamwork and Peer Leadership Explore what makes someone a teammate others trust. Learn to handle conflict, encourage someone who is struggling, and set an example that peers can choose to follow. 4. Choices, Character, and Responsibility Examine how values and peer pressure shape everyday decisions. Use the Four-Way Test to think through a choice, consider who it affects, and take responsibility for the outcome. 5. Leadership in Action Choose a need in your school or community and decide what you can do about it. Practice setting a goal, adjusting when plans change, and building a personal leadership plan you can use beyond the course.
What Your Enrollment Includes
Five courses you can apply at school and beyond Thirty lessons combine readings, personal assessments, scenarios, reflection, and knowledge checks. Use a class, team, club, part-time job, or volunteer role as your point of reference. Practice with decisions students actually face Work through situations where the next step is yours to choose. When a friend makes a joke at someone else’s expense, for example, consider what you could say in the moment and how you might follow up afterward. Your personal leadership plan and pathway capstone Bring the five courses together by choosing a habit to strengthen, a setting where you’ll practice it, and a way to recognize progress. Leave with a next step you can take this week.
High School Leadership Pathway
Enroll today and put your first leadership lesson to work in your next class, practice, or shift.