LEARNING TO LEAD
Star Spencer students are participating in Thunder GM Sam Presti's leadership program
SPENCER — Twenty high school students sat before Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti on Friday. Not all of them were sure what brought them there.
The group of sophomore sand junior sat Star Spencer High School didn't apply for Presti's Forward Thinking Leadership program. Each student was chosen to participate.
Pres ti' s session on Friday was the first step to help them figure out why.
“Everyone has a scouting report,” Presti told the group. “What you have to figure out is, what is that? What is that thing that's putting you in the room? I can't tell you that. My guess, though, is that you know what it is, or just one thing. And then, from there you've got to just keep watering that seed.”
Presti will return to Star Spencer for four sessions with the same 20 students over the school year. The group will discuss facets of leadership like em pathy, non-technological communication, listening and the willingness to be different.
For the first time, the program will partner with the University of Pennsylvania to add two more lessons with students. UPenn's Positive Psychology Center will host sessions on building resiliency and learned optimism.
“I think the No. 1 thing is helping them understand that leadership is a personal endeavor ,” Presti said. “A lot of it is, at this age, exploring what their character strengths are and the importance of constantly investing and practicing those to develop them f or when those leadership opportunities come.”
Star Spencer Principal Char maine Johnson is familiar with Presti's talk of “planting seeds.” She was principal of Oklahoma Centennial High School when he founded the Forward Thinking Leadership program in 2011.
Centennial was one of the three high schools chosen for the yearlong leadership curriculum, along with U.S. Grant and John Marshall.
“Once I saw the first session in 2011, I knew that it was the right program and the right messages that he was delivering that our kids needed to plant those seeds ,” Johnson said.
“I think that's what he's doing. He's planting seeds that the kids can begin to water and we can begin to water to flourish those talents and skills that they have.”
Each school selects 20 sophomores and juniors, but they don't make the obvious choice, Johnson said. The program isn' t looking for the valedictorian or the student body president.
Instead, Presti wanted the students whose leadership potential was still untapped.
Thomas Jones, a junior, guessed each student was chosen for showing a positive attitude. He said the school told each member of the group at different times that they had been selected.
“The first person I called was my grandma,” Jones said .“She was proud of me and said she was proud of my improvements and my attitude and how I've been trying to educate myself and learn. It was just a very exciting moment for me.”
When Centennial
closed t his year, Presti had Star Spencer in mind as a possible replacement. Oklahoma City Council member Nikki Nice had recommended the school during a meeting with Presti this summer.
He also had developed a relationship with UPenn's Positive Psychology Center.
The center had worked with Thunder staff to coach resilience and optimism.
The Forward Thinking Leadership program was an outlet to bring those tools into the community, Presti said.
Optimism became a critical principle for the general manager. It' s envisioning a positive outcome, even when things aren't going well, he said.
That forward- thinking mentality also helps with scouting new talent, like the time Pres ti was observing a UCLA game a decade ago. Presti was
watching UCLA point guard Darren Collison, but he couldn't help but notice when Collison's backup, Russell West brook, checked into the game like a “whirling dervish.”
Though Collison was the more NBA-ready prospect, Pres tis aid Westbrook's raw talent “was screaming at you.”
“Am I looking for who can play in the NBA that night, or am I looking for who can play in the NBA for 10 years?” Presti told the group of Star Spencer students .“So, you' re looking not for what things are, but what they can be. Same thing about this in the scouting report you're giving yourself.”