ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The third annual Student Leadership Summit for Pinellas County Schools was held Thursday.

The summit is held at the University of South Florida’s St. Pete campus, where students completed a variety of team-building activities, and got to meet with some of the districts’ top leaders, including Superintendent Kevin Hendrick.

What You Need To Know

  • Pinellas County elementary, middle, and high school students took part in the district's Student Leadership Summit Thursday

  • Students did team-building activities like the Spaghetti Tower Challenge, Lego competition, and an escape room

  • Superintendent Hendrick attributes things like the Leadership Summit to helping Pinellas County Schools receive its first “A” grade for the entire district

The summit started with a meeting with Hendrick, and after sharing some of their schools' accomplishments, the real work began.

A group of students from East Lake Middle School was put on a team together. Their first task: To build a structure using nothing but tape, string and spaghetti noodles.

Sixth-grader Nora Katefilitovitz was in the group and was chosen by her teachers to represent her school at the leadership summit. 

“I try to pay attention as much as I can, but sometimes it’s OK to get a little bit off task, we’re human," Katefilitovitz said. "But I try to get the best grades, study as much as I can. I think that’s what made me stand out."

This year, the theme was "Digital Responsibility," and while the team-building activities were fun, they also served a greater purpose.

“Students today will learn how to be leaders and grow their leadership skills, and then they’ll go back and at their individual levels — whether it be elementary, middle or high school — will develop a project to further digital responsibility in our schools and our community,” said Hendrick.

Hendrick said these are the same activities teachers and staff do at their leadership meetings, and this summit has proven to be a success.

“It has to have some impact on the whole 90,000 students, and so we’ve seen that over the years that it’s both a great day for the individual students and we see the change that happens on our campuses as well,” he said.

While Katefilitovitz's group faced some challenges in the spaghetti build, she said it did force everyone to work together as a team, which she considers a success.

“It was to symbol being able to listen to everybody else, and to take in everybody’s ideas, and not just think about yourself, but to think about what everybody else is thinking,” she said.

They are skills Katefilitovitz said she’ll share with students at her school, becoming the type of leader she aspires to be. 

Hendrick attributes things like the Leadership Summit to helping Pinellas County Schools receive its first “A” grade for the entire district.