When I sat down with my colleagues Will Estrada and Joel Grewe to design a leadership program for HSLDA in 2008, we were all young and enthusiastic. We knew instinctively what an American vice president would later tell me about our Generation Joshua summer camps: “Jeremiah, you are producing leaders, and America’s most important natural resource is leadership.”
This is what was going through my head when an 18-year-old camper named Caleb addressed the students at our leadership camp called “iGovern.” He was elected president in a hard-fought campaign at last year’s camp, so this year he was back as the head of our simulated government. He is hard-hitting, direct, and inspirational.
As he spoke, I could see that he was making a mistake. But I wasn’t concerned. Camp is a place where students can make leadership mistakes and learn from them. (Isn’t it great when someone can make a horrible mistake, but the stakes are low, because it’s all a simulation?)
Caleb participates in the iGovern 2024 presidential debate. © GenJ / Timothy Schatzinger
I had given him some signals to help him out, but as he boldly began barking orders, I could see that Caleb was making the problem bigger. Big mistakes are a part of life, so I started thinking how we could turn the consequences of his mistake into lessons he could learn from. He kept going, and in that moment, I was caught between watching this young leader make a huge mistake that would impact one hundred other students, and my own private musings on how we actually learn leadership.