Spring 2025Key Leader Weekend will be: April 25-27 @ Mount Shepherd Retreat Center in Asheboro, NC Registration is now live! REGISTER HERE! Fees for student participants are: $250 – before March 1st $300 – March 1st – 31st $350 – April 1st – 14th
Want to sponsor student attendees? The registration portal also allows you to purchase vouchers which can be e-mailed directly to registrants/parents/advisors (or even to yourself – or us! – for unspecified support).
Interested in serving as a Student Facilitator? If you’ve attended Key Leader previously, you are eligible. Please fill out the application and we’ll contact you.
We also need adult chaperones for the weekend. You are required to have a current background check (as per Kiwanis International rules). Any questions, please e-mail us.
Key Leader is a weekend experiential leadership program for today’s young leaders. This life-changing event focuses on service leadership as the first, most meaningful leadership-development experience. A Key Leader will learn the most important lesson of leadership—it comes from helping others succeed.
Participants begin by attending a Key Leader conference, which takes place over the course of a weekend. Large and small group workshops, discussions and team-building activities take place over the course of the weekend. Students have opportunities to learn leadership skills that will help them to change their schools, communities, and world for the better. While exploring leadership in a whole new way, participants will make amazing new friends and have experiences they will never forget. Positive, ongoing interaction with other Key Leader graduates offers continuing reinforcement, encouragement and growth of leadership skills.
The Key Leader program is built on five essential principles. These principles reflect our mission to inspire young people to achieve their personal best through service leadership:
Personal Integrity: Doing the right thing
Personal Growth: Developing in mind, body, and spirit
Respect: Showing consideration for self, others, and property
Building Community: Developing relationships to achieve positive goals
Pursuit of Excellence: Expecting and achieving the best
How does Key Leader impact youth? It helps participants in developing important social and emotional skills, which allow them to understand self and develop meaningful connections with others. These skills enable young people to calm themselves when angry, initiate friendships, resolve relationship conflicts respectfully, and make ethical and safe choices.
The five core categories of social and emotional learning are emphasized through Key Leader:
SELF-AWARENESS – Accurately accessing one’s feelings, interests, values, and strengths/abilities, and maintaining a well-grounded sense of self-confidence.
SELF-MANAGEMENT – Regulating one’s emotions to handle stress, control impulses, and persevere in overcoming obstacles; setting personal goals and academic goals and then monitoring one’s progress toward achieving them. The ability to express emotions constructively.
SOCIAL AWARENESS – Taking the perspective of empathizing with others; recognizing and appreciating individual and group similarities and differences; identifying the following social standards of conduct; and recognizing and using family, school, and community resources.
RESPONSIBLE DECISION-MAKING – Making decisions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, appropriate standards of conduct, respect for others, and likely consequences of various actions; applying decision-making skills to academic and social situations; and contributing to the well-being of one’s school and community.
RELATIONSHIP SKILLS – Establishing and maintaining healthy and rewarding relationships based on cooperation; resisting inappropriate social pressure; preventing, managing, and resolving interpersonal conflict; and seeking help when needed.
Key Leader: A Life-Changing Experience
Spring 2025 Key Leader Weekend will be:
April 25-27 @ Mount Shepherd Retreat Center in Asheboro, NC
Registration is now live! REGISTER HERE!
Fees for student participants are:
$250 – before March 1st
$300 – March 1st – 31st
$350 – April 1st – 14th
Want to sponsor student attendees? The registration portal also allows you to purchase vouchers which can be e-mailed directly to registrants/parents/advisors (or even to yourself – or us! – for unspecified support).
Interested in serving as a Student Facilitator?
If you’ve attended Key Leader previously, you are eligible.
Please fill out the application and we’ll contact you.
We also need adult chaperones for the weekend.
You are required to have a current background check (as per Kiwanis International rules).
Any questions, please e-mail us.
To learn more about the program in general, check out Key-Leader.org
Already excited? Check out a sample agenda & packing list!
Also, our district-specific FAQ & promotional flyer documents are now available.
Please also consider following our socials in to stay in the loop!
Key Leader is a weekend experiential leadership program for today’s young leaders. This life-changing event focuses on service leadership as the first, most meaningful leadership-development experience. A Key Leader will learn the most important lesson of leadership—it comes from helping others succeed.
Participants begin by attending a Key Leader conference, which takes place over the course of a weekend. Large and small group workshops, discussions and team-building activities take place over the course of the weekend. Students have opportunities to learn leadership skills that will help them to change their schools, communities, and world for the better. While exploring leadership in a whole new way, participants will make amazing new friends and have experiences they will never forget. Positive, ongoing interaction with other Key Leader graduates offers continuing reinforcement, encouragement and growth of leadership skills.
The Key Leader program is built on five essential principles. These principles reflect our mission to inspire young people to achieve their personal best through service leadership:
How does Key Leader impact youth? It helps participants in developing important social and emotional skills, which allow them to understand self and develop meaningful connections with others. These skills enable young people to calm themselves when angry, initiate friendships, resolve relationship conflicts respectfully, and make ethical and safe choices.
The five core categories of social and emotional learning are emphasized through Key Leader:
SELF-AWARENESS – Accurately accessing one’s feelings, interests, values, and strengths/abilities, and maintaining a well-grounded sense of self-confidence.
SELF-MANAGEMENT – Regulating one’s emotions to handle stress, control impulses, and persevere in overcoming obstacles; setting personal goals and academic goals and then monitoring one’s progress toward achieving them. The ability to express emotions constructively.
SOCIAL AWARENESS – Taking the perspective of empathizing with others; recognizing and appreciating individual and group similarities and differences; identifying the following social standards of conduct; and recognizing and using family, school, and community resources.
RESPONSIBLE DECISION-MAKING – Making decisions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, appropriate standards of conduct, respect for others, and likely consequences of various actions; applying decision-making skills to academic and social situations; and contributing to the well-being of one’s school and community.
RELATIONSHIP SKILLS – Establishing and maintaining healthy and rewarding relationships based on cooperation; resisting inappropriate social pressure; preventing, managing, and resolving interpersonal conflict; and seeking help when needed.
Check out photos from past Key Leader events!
A fun and rewarding weekend experience awaits.