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Leadership comes in all different forms, and in kids, leadership helps to build essential life skills like confidence, problem-solving, and empathy. At Betz Elementary, anyone can be a leader, and fifth grade students are encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and embrace leadership through Generation Alive.

Per their website, Generation Alive (GA) is “a nonprofit organization in Spokane, Wash., that is activating youth to lead with compassion.” Betz has been partnering with GA since 2023, and it is becoming a routine part of the fall semester. Any interested fifth graders complete an application process, including a form and a short essay on why they want to be part of the program. Once they have parental consent to participate, GA advisor and Betz fifth grade teacher, Nicole Williams, accepts them for the Action Team on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“This year was really great because they’ve seen this, and they’ve gotten to participate,” Williams said. “They were really excited, and they came in with ideas already for the skits for the assembly, game show ideas they wanted to do, and how they could do announcements differently.”

The 2025 Betz Action Team had 22 students, and they began weekly meetings in late September to map out their fall assembly and December food-packing event. This group of students learned about community needs, the meaning of compassion, how to inspire their peers to serve the community with them, how to fundraise and advocate for causes they care about, and ultimately how to lead their Generation Alive community service project.

This year’s group of students even created a rap song, complete with lyrics highlighting food insecurity, leading with compassion, and leadership. Click here to view the video.

“It surprised me how well they did with it because they were really like, we decided to throw together this rap,” Williams said. “When you listen to it, they had all the food insecurity things, all the strong messaging that needs to come with Generation Alive, and so then you’re like, wow. This is something they're truly interested in because you can tell they put all their energy into it.”

Students participating in Generation Alive also learned about their leadership style, including their personality types and preferred working style. GA breaks it down into four easily digestible groups: lions, bumble bees, otters, and golden retrievers. Students learned more about themselves, how they operate, and their strengths.

“It’s really fun when they start using the language,” Williams said. “They know who they are, and ‘I’m going to go find an otter because an otter is going to help me have these skills.’

So, when you’re building your team, you want to have all those personality leadership traits, because if you’re all lions, are you going to get something done?” Williams continued. “The kids grab on to this, the student-friendly terminology.”

Williams saw the growth throughout her class, and she saw peer understanding and acceptance flourish. One fifth grader in particular who made big strides with Generation Alive is Calen Angeles. Oftentimes viewed as more playful and goofy by his peers, Calen learned more about his own personality and leadership style through GA. Over the course of the fall, he blossomed into an unexpected but powerful leader.

“Seeing him go from someone that I think a lot of students view as just silly to like, oh, he’s very serious, he has a great work ethic,” Williams said. “Just kind of changing the perspective of his peers toward him was huge…In this arena, they realized he has a valuable skillset, and they asked, ‘Can he be at my table?! He knows what’s going on!’”

Calen’s leadership was especially important during the GA food-packing event. He is organized and has an attention to detail that is unmatched. Where some of his classmates struggled to remember the table setup, he was able to replicate it with ease.

“He looked at the display table when we were setting up, and he set up his table no problem,” Williams recounted. “That’s how he processes. [Students] were like, wait, I’m missing this? And he was like, yeah, you’re missing the green scoop. You’re missing the red scoop. He could just look at their table and know.”

“I feel so much like a leader and everything, for my group,” Calen said. “Packing up the food and everything, it was just the best.”

This year, Betz raised $2,008.83 during a six-week coin drive, providing over 8,000 meals for the community. On Dec. 4, the GA leadership team led Betz students through the food packing event, measuring and packing apple and cinnamon sugar oatmeal for the local food bank.

“The community service project is invaluable,” Williams said. “I think the whole school, raising [money] to pack the food and seeing the Cheney food bank here to get the food, knew they were helping to feed our community. That was really special to them. Both components are just really huge, so I cannot promote the program enough.

…When students are passionate about something, it’s amazing the product they produce.”

 

Communities in Schools is hosting a Resource Night on November 14th in the High School Cafeteria from 5:00pm to 6:30 pm