The students had an opportunity to highlight their individual school accomplishments and speak of their collective work regarding the global charity project our Meritas Schools have embraced as their 5 year project. La Gloria, a small village in Mexico, has received both financial support in the amount of $70,000 from all eleven Meritas Schools, and this community has benefited from the tireless work of students and faculty as they have volunteered their time to build a community center for the village and to teach children to read and write.

The Summit Leadership Training included hands-on training with Epcot’s “YES Program” a program focused on training leaders in the areas of communication, marketing, vision and customer service. In addition, our students had an opportunity to listen and discuss leadership strategies with many prestigious leaders, including senior management leaders at Disney, the Orlando Magic Head Coach, Stan Van Gundy, Lake Mary’s Mayor, David Mealor and NASA’s astronaut, Mr. McBride. Each speaker shared personal leadership experiences and stressed the importance of service to others—sending the message to our youth that a true leader’s ambition is to make the world a better place.