Leadership skills, service projects and free food from Chick-Fil-A are just a few parts of the Chick-Fil-A leadership academy at FHS.

The club is sponsored by Chick-Fil-A and consists of nine, hour-long leadership meetings throughout the year starting at 6:30 a.m. This year the club participated in two service projects that were entirely planned by the students.

The first one took place around the holidays in December. They brought in Chick-Fil-A for the custodians for either breakfast or dinner depending on their schedules, and then also dropped off holiday goody bags.

The second service project was the bigger one in the spring. They went to the local nursing home, Enclave Senior Living Center. The club members brought nail polish and dogs to spend time with the elderly.

“We went during a time when they don’t get many visitors because we knew they can get lonely being by themselves,” junior Allison Mudra said. “We wanted to help make their day brighter. We felt that it was a community that often gets forgotten.”

Club sponsor Lauren Vail believes that the Chick-Fil-A Leadership Academy teaches students many important skills such as taking initiative, communicating and listening.

“This world needs really good leaders and I think there are a lot of kids that want to be leaders they just don’t know how to apply those skills,” Vail said. “Giving them the tools is really important for when they leave here.”

Students can only participate in the club for one year, but, after that, they are welcome to come back as mentor leaders. The application process to be part of the academy is in late August and early December, and there will be information about it at summer registration.

“I would encourage people to join because you learn so much about servant leadership and how important it is to help make your community better,“ Mudra said.