Twenty-five years ago, TEPSA’s Executive Committee and former Executive Director, Sandi Borden, recognized the importance of cultivating leadership skills early. They saw a need—and an opportunity— to empower students with the confidence, communication, and collaboration skills necessary to lead effectively on their campuses. With no leadership programs available for elementary students at the time, TEPSA’s student development initiative was groundbreaking.
Carolyn Solomon, a retired educator, and Harley Eckhart, former Associate Executive Director and current TEPSA Executive Director, brought this vision of nurturing and supporting student leaders to life. In the spring of 2000, Solomon piloted the first three workshops, testing the program’s structure and impact. That fall, Solomon and Eckhart officially launched TEPSA’s inaugural Student Leadership Workshops and oversaw everything from registration to transporting training materials across Texas.
Solomon became the face of the workshops, leading hands-on sessions that trained thousands of students to lead with courage and optimism. She made the workshops fun by engaging students through lively discussions, singing and dancing. Meanwhile, Eckhart collaborated closely with advisors to establish strong leadership teams and sustainable programs, while also broadening the initiative’s reach through direct mail campaigns, distributing thousands of flyers and letters to schools. Outreach eventually expanded online, enhancing the program’s accessibility to campuses statewide. With increasing demand, the workshops evolved into two traveling teams, enabling TEPSA to connect with even more aspiring student leaders.
Today, under the leadership of TEPSA’s Deputy Executive Director Mark Terry, Student Leadership Manager Kristina Jaimes and Directors of Student Leadership Lisa McLaughlin and Belinda Box, that initial vision has blossomed into a dynamic statewide initiative. With more than 40,000 student leaders trained, the program’s evolution reflects the transformative journey of student leadership development.
To everyone who has participated in the program over the years—thank you! We’re proud to celebrate this milestone and look forward to continuing training the next generation of student leaders! We hope to see your 4th-7th grade students and their advisors at one of the 35 TEPSA Student Leadership Workshops happening this fall throughout the state.
