Since 2006, 52 Washington schools have had student representatives selected for the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s (WIAA) Leadership through Education, Activities, and Personal Development (LEAP) student committee program.
This year, Bothell High School had its first student representative.
“Students like Chloe [Lium] inspire me,” said Sharyn Mehner, assistant principal of Bothell High School, of Bothell HS’s first student chosen to LEAP, in an email. “I have no doubt that Chloe will do a great job representing our Cougar community and providing student perspective in decisions regarding interscholastic activities among schools.”
A Bothell Cougar at heart, Chloe Lium plays basketball, soccer and softball for her high school, and keeps her grades at a 3.9 GPA.
“It’s a goal that I’ve set myself, but also I like the sense of personal achievement. When I do well in sports I like to carry over that feeling of achievement into the classroom,” Lium said. “I like to be involved in what I do and this gave me the opportunity to have a voice and be a leader.”
Being chosen as one of the 13 students that will participate in LEAP this year, Lium will attend meetings to discuss issues within WIAA and how to solve them, but will also be the voice for other WIAA students.
“Its been really fun. I really didn’t have a good idea what I was getting myself into,” Lium said. “It’s pretty eye opening because the tournaments I’d played in I was now helping plan and manage, it’s really cool to be a part of that.”
Lium has already been to several of the LEAP meetings and events and has met other students from across the state.
“It’s really rewarding to know that something I love so much, I’m going to be putting my hands on it and helping kind of shape it into something new or fix problems, or show others how much fun high school sports can be,” said Lium.
In order to be accepted to the program, Chloe first had to meet the requirements and submit an application. Now that she has been accepted, she will be discussing and planning WIAA activities, meeting with other LEAP students, develop projects and initiatives that promote LEAP and build awareness of the value it brings to students, and create a blog (coming in mid January 2015) for the WIAA LEAP Blog.
According to Andy Knapp, who is the director of marketing, promotions and corporate partners at WIAA, more than one thing made Lium’s application stand out from the others. Not only is she a three-sport athlete for a 4A school, but she’s kept her GPA at 3.9 and participated in DECA programs at Bothell HS.
“Chloe’s coaches, teachers and school administrators had overwhelmingly positive things to say about her in their letters of recommendations,” Knapp said via email. “…Her video personal statement helped the selection committee get a glimpse of her personality, and we could see that she would be an energetic and insightful contributor to our group discussions.”
On top of that, Chloe participated in the Coins for a Cause, which raised nearly $2,000 during this year’s State Football Championship. The proceeds from it will be going to InvestED, a statewide non-profit partnering with around 650 schools to provide help to students for things such as athletic fees, choir robes, eyeglasses or graduation expenses.
For Lium, the opportunities abound each time she attends a meeting.
“I hope to gain a sense of a way of communication for my community to help better the WIAA,” she said. “I want to be a messenger for everyone and a leader, and just kind of help improve the things that I’m so involved with… be a positive member of my community and benefit the committee.”
