LeaderworX is a great opportunity for you to grow in yourself and to help form the minds of many others you encounter. One piece of advice I wish to mention is the reality that you are going to be challenged and you are going to experience conflict. This is not a bad thing for it is through conflict that growth happens. The important part is to be yourself, to be the person God has created you to be. This includes all of your little quirks and personality traits. LeaderworX is an opportunity for you to grow as a person so you need to bring yourself to this summer and the people you work with and lead need you to be yourself. That being said, you are going to disagree with other from the smallest things to the most important things. It is important not to ignore your disagreements, address them. One thing I value most in life is working through conflict and overcome obstacles in your path. This cannot be done if you hide from them. I challenge you to grow and develop as people this can only be done through conflict and struggle either in yourself or with others. To quote scripture, “Do not be Afraid” and “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear”

Leaderworx is time consuming but even with all the responsibilities of being a leader, one does not have to do everything on their own. The leaderworx community is supportive and if one is uncomfortable with any task, then someone is always willing to help you out. Also expect to be challenged in ways that you never would have imagined. There are activities that push you to be vulnerable and if we are not vulnerable as leaders, then how can we expect the participants to be open with us? In the end, expect to fall in love with the state of New Jersey and how the people of New Jersey will hold a special place in your heart.

Leaderworx is time consuming but even with all the responsibilities of being a leader, one does not have to do everything on their own. The leaderworx community is supportive and if one is uncomfortable with any task, then someone is always willing to help you out. Also expect to be challenged in ways that you never would have imagined. There are activities that push you to be vulnerable and if we are not vulnerable as leaders, then how can we expect the participants to be open with us? In the end, expect to fall in love with the state of New Jersey and how the people of New Jersey will hold a special place in your heart.

Expect to be stretched in a holy and beautiful way. This summer you will go through the gifts and challenges with living in community; get ready to love! This summer you will get a chance to not only lead others in service, but be at the service of those serving. Expect to be challenged by your students, their problems, awkwardness… in the same breath, expect to be challenged to grow in charity by the example your students set. Expect to rely on your LeaderworX community and to be stretched to love and serve beyond your capacity.

I’d say to expect to spend time in community and engage in community activities, for those formation weeks were a big part of my summer. It was not just about leading service, but also learning about fellow community members, building community, and being a part of the larger Trenton community. The weeks spent not leading service groups were important for my personal formation, which I did not realize would be the case. So, I’d say to expect also great personal development in faith and knowledge beyond leadership.

Be ready to experience the best summer of your life. You are going to have an amazing time at LeaderworX. The best part of this experience is that you will develop relationships with members of an awesome community of students, brothers and sisters who share the same faith and are passionate about serving God and serving our neighbors. Always have a positive attitude with the youth that you will be serving and develop relationships with them also. Bring your acoustic guitar or ukulele, congas, skateboard or long board a soccer ball and all of your energy to participate and do a lot of service learning. You are going to learn many new things specially living in community.