Leadership Northeast proudly celebrated 68 students from 17 area high schools who graduated from the Junior Leadership Northeast program on May 20 at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts.
Courtesy of Junior Leadership Northeast
68 ‘servant leaders’ worked on various projects
Mo Doherty, 16, from Wyoming Seminary; Sara Golden, 17, from Wyoming Area, and Carly Dushanko, 17, from Crestwood said one of the benefits of working together as members of the ‘Spark Squad’ team was that they became friends.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Dallas High School classmates Brady McCann and Brady Ecenrode, both 17, and Luke Tellis, 16, told a reporter they found it rewarding to work with their Junior Leadership teams, which included, respectively, Fuel Our Future, Spark Squad and The River Readers.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Speaking onstage during the Junior Leadership graduation ceremony at the F.M. Kirby Center, Aleni Kaupp, from Wyoming Valley West High School, reminisced about the beginning of the program, when students met each other in September.
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Gabrielle Dubois, from West Side Career & Technical Center, described highlights of the Junior Leadership program during the graduation ceremony. She was a member of the Hearts for Heroes team, which worked on a project to benefit veterans.
Amber Jones | For Times Leader
Jason Wagner, Wilkes University professor and a graduate of Leadership Northeast, presented the inaugural William Wagner Memorial Scholarship Award to Mackenzie Hrivnak from the Dallas School District. The award is named in honor of Wagner’s late father, who taught in the Dallas School District, and is designated for students who plan to major in education in college.
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Annaleia Rose, from Greater Nanticoke Area High School, talked about being a member of The River Readers team. Their project involved supplying books to children.
Amber Jones | For Times Leader
Cassidy Smith, Program Coordinator for Leadership Northeast, welcomed the audience to the Junior Leadership Northeast graduation.
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Leah Haddock, from Wyoming Area, received her certificate and her graduation cords.
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Isabella DeGraffenfield, from Wilkes-Barre Area STEM Academy, receives her graduation certificate and cords and shakes hands with Jessica Cronauer, Executive Director of Leadership Northeast
Amber Jones | For Times Leader
Thanks to a hard-working group of high school juniors, little kids have new books to read, hungry families have more food, and veterans know somebody cares.
Some children who didn’t have their own beds now have a place to stretch out at night, and even the animals at Blue Chip Farm have more supplies.
A total of 68 students from 17 area high schools graduated from Leadership Northeast’s Junior Leadership program on Wednesday at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in Downtown Wilkes-Barre, and each of them had worked on a team to answer a need in the community.
“We’d hold up a book and say something like ‘Who likes dragons? Here’s a book about dragons,” 16-year-old Luke Tellis from Dallas High School said, reminiscing about how his team, The River Readers, had distributed books at local elementary schools after helping to collect thousands of them.
Waiting for Wednesday’s graduation ceremony to start, Brady McCann, 17, and also from Dallas High School, said it was “really awesome to know we helped over 600 families.”
As a member of the Fuel Our Future team, he collected food for people in need and helped organize a cornhole tournament at Doug’s Board Room in Kingston.
Once Wednesday’s graduation program started, each of the Junior Leadership grads had a chance to address the audience, often mentioning fundraisers such as 5K races, basket raffles or Bingo games they had organized to help finance their projects.
As part of the Dream Makers team, some of these “servant leaders” had physically helped build beds in connection with the Sleep in Heavenly Peace organization. As part of the Spark Squad, some had made fleece tie-blankets and stuffed satchels with toys and coloring books for pediatric patients at Geisinger’s Janet Weis Children’s Hospital.
The River Readers had read books to small children on Read Across America Day, and the Serving Smiles group had organized a walk/run on the Back Mountain Trail to benefit Coffee Inclusive.
The Supper Squad had worked to help the Dinners for Kids program that operates out of Ollie’s Restaurant on the West Side; the Jogs for Dogs team organized a 5K for the Blue Chip Farm Animal Rescue, Hearts for Heroes visited with and collected gifts for veterans, the Head Start Heroes pitched in to help the preschoolers at Luzerne County Head Start and the Tiny Miracles team worked to help young families in connection with the MamaBird organization.
Along the way, the graduates developed leadership skills, learned about their communities and made new friends — because each team was made up of students from different high schools.
“We learned a lot of stuff you don’t learn in school,” said 17-year-old Sara Golden, from Wyoming Area, who was part of the Spark Squad, along with Mo Doherty from Wyoming Seminary and Carol Dushanko from Crestwood. The three, who were spending time together in the Kirby Center lobby before Wednesday’s ceremony, said they expect they will remain friends.
One highlight of Wednesday’s program was the presentation of the inaugural William Wagner Memorial Scholarship Award to Mackenzie Hrivnak, from the Dallas School District, who plans to study education in college. The award was presented by Jason Wagner, a Wilkes University professor who is the son of the late educator William Wagner.
With more than 3,000 alumni, Leadership Northeast began in 1981 as a community leadership development organization. An independent non-profit, it is dedicated to developing informed and committed leaders from all segments of society.
In the spring of each year, Leadership Northeast accepts applications from high school sophomores who are interested in participating in the Junior Leadership Northeast program the following fall. Applications are available at all participating public and private schools and must be submitted through the participating high school guidance office. The JLNE Class of 2027 has been finalized and will begin their program in the fall of 2026. For more info, see leadershipnortheast.org.
