Students can benefit from learning leadership, community and business skills early.

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Middle school can be a challenging time for families, because students are dealing with tougher academic classes while also going through big emotional and physical changes. However, this stage of life is also marked by immense personal growth, which makes it the ideal time to teach students leadership, community and business skills.
If you're not sure what this skills-building looks like, University Lake School, which offers experiential learning tailored to individual age groups, can help. Here are six reasons why it’s beneficial to begin positioning students for professional and personal success at a younger age.
Self-confidence boosts at this age make a big impact.
Middle school can be a time of great uncertainty. However, University Lake School’s Pine Rock Studios offers students in this age group stability—as well as a way to develop leadership, community and business skills.
During the four-week class, which is taken each year from fifth through eighth grade, students form rock bands, choose a musical instrument to play and decide on songs to learn. At the end of the session, these bands perform live in front of friends, family and other students.
"We're asking them to do the thing that most middle schoolers are the most terrified of, which is to get on stage and do something that they might not be all that good at," said instructor Peter Humphreys-Loving. "We spend a lot time shying away from the things that bring our children discomfort. And here we are, doing the opposite thing."
Conquering discomfort—and overcoming fear to achieve success—are two major ways to boost self-esteem and self-confidence.
In fact, Humphreys-Loving added that adults often have a tough time keeping a rock band together, meaning that middle schoolers successfully pulling off a live performance should be especially proud.
"We're taking a pretty difficult task, and pairing it with a pretty difficult time in any young person's life," he said. "In some ways, to combine them so that when they get to the other side, it's like, 'Oh my gosh, I survived that—and found all these skills that I didn't necessarily know about.'"
Developing these skills helps students identify their passions and strengths.
Middle school is an ideal time for students to explore different academic areas and extracurricular activities. In fact, as students try new things, they'll often discover something about which they're passionate.
Emmett Mulrooney started playing acoustic guitar at age 10. But after doing a school project on Les Paul in fourth grade, the John Mayer fan started playing electric guitar, which he continued to do throughout his four years at Pine Rock Studios.
Now 14, Mulrooney has bustling social media channels, and has started playing out in local clubs.
Looking back, the eighth grader said he learned quite a bit from Pine Rock Studios—including patience and how to work together in groups—and isn't sure whether he would've taken his guitar playing as far as he did without the experience.
"I don't even know if I would have really gotten so far into it and played songs, and want to be in a band, and done all that," he said.
Learning leadership styles early on is beneficial in the long run.
Leadership comes in many forms, from the outgoing types who lead by boisterous example, to the quiet ones who form the backbone of organizations.
Helping students determine what kind of leaders they are early on helps them become valuable team players, and see that their contributions are important.
In fact, Dr. Patrick Mulrooney, an Upper School English teacher at ULS, praises Pine Rock Studio's approach to skills-building, and how it translates to participation in the classroom.
"Everyone is expected to be part of the team," he said. "When people rely on you, that's a great thing.”
There's less pressure on this age group to have things figured out—which means there's more room for creativity and personal growth.
As students enter their high school years and start thinking in earnest about college, it becomes vital to have academic and extracurricular direction and focus.
During middle school, however, students are still a work in progress—and are encouraged to learn from mistakes along the way.
"They're still figuring things out," said instructor Maddie Olson. "They're still learning how to work together, what their strengths are, what they can still work on and improve, (and) how they can help each other out."
Middle schoolers also benefit by being given space to be creative. Olson and Humphreys-Loving note that their students often incorporate unexpected instrumentation—for example, violin in a popular song or steel drum added to another tune.
"(Students) spend a lot of time listening to their song and evaluating their song," Olson said. "They'll look at each other and say, 'Wouldn't it be cool if we used this instrument instead?' And so they dip into the resources of the music classroom, and they borrow things.
"If you think of something outside of the box, and the rest of your group is like, 'Oh yeah, that's awesome,' that's a huge booster."
Middle school students can handle sophisticated skills-building and group work.
Middle school students are resourceful about setting goals and making decisions, especially when they're given the opportunity to take ownership of their actions—or work together to solve problems.
That's the underlying premise of Pine Rock Studios' student-driven approach, which lets the musicians decide everything from the name of their band to their performance setlist.
In fact, although Olson and Humphreys-Loving are ready and willing to solve problems, they encourage the bands to try and figure things out on their own first.
That hands-off approach certainly resonated with two enthusiastic Pine Rock Studios participants, 11-year-old Lainey Soto and her 13-year-old sister, Callow Soto.
Both girls noted that working with their bandmates on things such as song choices or what instrument to play involved compromise, not insurmountable challenges.
"We would sometimes just be like, 'Well, you can do this, and I can do something else,'" Callow said, referencing how her band parceled out instruments.
"Or sometimes we just give it to them. We never really had a certain way of doing the things. I think we just tried to make everybody's parts equal."
Learning skills at a younger age better gives students a solid foundation for high school, college and beyond.
Although it might seem premature to start thinking about college—or even a career—while students are in middle school, it's never too early to start laying the groundwork for the future.
"Businesses are looking for people to be able to solve big problems that don't have traditional answers," said Humphreys-Loving.
"Some businesses are being rather vocal about, 'We need people who can collaborate. We need people who can think outside of the box.' Continuing to equip students early for that is pretty important."
It also never hurts to aim high. Emmett Mulrooney has a 2018 goal of performing every two weeks in public. So far, he's on track—and is saving money for college in support of his career aspirations.
"I really want to be a professional musician," he said.
Conclusion.
Middle school is an ideal time to start laying the groundwork for professional and personal success.
Does the hands-on approach practiced by Pine Rock Studios seem like a good fit for your family? Give University Lake School a call today and find out how they can give your leadership skills a boost.