Building Leaders Day at Devils Lake High School isn’t just for students to hear about jobs or careers. It’s an opportunity to hear about life lessons, perseverance, and motivation. An annual event, students on Thursday got to hear from speakers from all walks of life. Some were from the army, some were former graduates, and one was even a current student.
One of the speakers, Tony Aukland, graduated from DLHS in 1991 and works in IT and cyber security. During his sessions, he talked about his background in IT and his extensive work experience. “The way we all choose our careers, and the way that we get to where we are can be very varying paths, very different paths. It’s rarely a straight line,” he told the Journal. “I think if you can help somebody find that path that they’re looking for, whether it’s IT or any career path, but that thinking about it. Start putting a plan together. Start thinking of some ideas of ways you want to do it. I’m always encouraging kids to ask industries they’re interested in.”
Speakers didn’t just include people who are already set in their careers. One of the speakers was senior Gauge Driessen. Driessen plays for the high school baseball team. He talked publicly for the first time about his road to recovery from a potentially life-changing skiing accident. Driessen told the students about the injuries he suffered (using a skeleton on a stand to point out where he broke bones, including injuries he sustained to his spinal cord). “I just want to get my story out there,” he told the Journal. He spoke because he wanted his peers not to be hindered by any setbacks.
Cindy Schmidt from Lake Region Public Health talked to the students about good health habits such as not drinking, not smoking, and not vaping. “I wanted them to understand the process of how we decide what is our problem and how we measure it, and how decide what things we’re going to implement,” she told the Journal.
DLHS Principal Ryan Hanson hopes that the students took a few different things from the day. “One is that you can get somewhere a variety of different of paths, a variety of different avenues can get you to a place of success,” he said. “A lot of the speakers talked about being resilient, persevering, failing, getting back up, keeping perspective, being organized, being responsible for yourself, having a growth mindset, all of those which just makes you a better human being.”
He added that he hopes the students “view things a little differently” and that they “see all the different possibilities in front of them.”
