The students, ranging from sophomores to seniors, gathered in a hot conference room in the Santa Clara County Office of Education to participate in the second annual student leadership retreat sponsored by The Cornerstone Project—a countywide collaborative of community leaders and partner organizations working together to provide youth with support, boundaries and opportunities to thrive.

WGHS joined other high schools from the San Jose Unified School District and other districts within the county for the retreat, which was called "The Legacy of Your Leadership." On Aug. 15, the 150 students listened to speakers and watched videos about how to improve school atmosphere, then broke into groups to set goals for their own campus.

"This retreat focuses on student leadership developing plans to make their school a more caring place and a place where more students will experience success," says Linda Silvius, an educational consultant for The Cornerstone Project.

The WGHS students who attended were a mixture of Associated Student Body (ASB) members and non-leadership students. "We wanted to try to get diversity from all different social groups and grade levels," says WGHS Principal Elaine Farace.

The students quickly decided their school could use a greater sense of community, unity and a more comfortable, "homier" feeling. But it took longer to determine how to accomplish this goal.

"Our school is separated between racial groups and class," says Monique Kapps, 17, ASB public relations officer. "Through this retreat I learned how to motivate people to help out when we go back to school. I've got lots of ideas about how to announce student activities that everyone will want to participate in so we can unify the school."

Agreeing with Kapps is Lulu Cervantes, 17, who is not on ASB. "I want more Latinos to get involved to get more pride in WGHS. I was always shy about volunteering but will give it my all this year to make the school better. Latinos need to say what we want so we can take action."

Since the high school was recently under construction and is mostly painted white, the students decided to use colorful paint for the building's walls and to write inspirational quotes.

"If we put up inspiring quotes, wall drawings and artwork, it will boost school spirit and pride and establish a sense of community," says Fernando Munoz, 16, a WGHS junior.

Reaching out to freshman through a mentoring program called "Link Crew" and an academic tutoring program are other steps that could unify the campus, Kapps says.

"We found out from sophomores at the retreat that as freshmen they didn't know what clubs the high schools has or how to join a sport," says WGHS Vice Principal Tina Van Laarhoven. "So a mentoring program between upperclassmen and lowerclassmen will help answer these questions. At the retreat kids also voted to beautify the school because it will build a homier environment."

Munoz says upperclassmen need to emphasize to freshmen that "we're not just Ram football and baseball players—we're all Rams all the time. We have to have school spirit and pride all the time, even if sports are not doing well."

This was the second summer WGHS participated in The Cornerstone Project retreat. In addition to encouraging school unity, the retreat also helped some students like Beth Laskosky, 16, become more involved in school.

"I've never been one to be active in school before," Laskosky says. "This meeting has made me want to be active because I only have two years left in high school. Even if I'm only painting the school I can make a difference."