TOLEDO—Opening speaker Jack Altenburger, superintendent of Toledo diocesan Catholic schools, stressed to seventh-graders the leadership role they will play at their schools next fall.

Seventh-graders practice building consensus through a group art project during a leadership conference at Toledo St. John’s Jesuit High School. (Photo courtesy of St. John’s Jesuit High School)

Mr. Altenburger’s talk was one of the highlights of the St. John’s Jesuit High School Seventh-Grade Leadership Conference May 1. Students from 20 Catholic elementary schools learned more about leadership through laughter and team building exercises.

Almost 500 boys and girls attended from Catholic schools in Toledo, Rossford, Napoleon, Sylvania, Fremont, Bryan, Carey and Monroeville.

Keynote speaker Josh Shipp, through the power of laughter, offered “advice with attitude” to a generation that communicates through MySpace, podcasts, ebooks, Web sites and blogs. Fr. Herb Weber, pastor of Perrysburg Blessed John XXIII, discussed the teenage call to be individuals and their role as Catholic leaders in the community through service and by using every God-given talent.

Students attended workshops on self-awareness, building consensus and teambuilding using leadership techniques such as working through mazes together, creating their own identities through artwork and through personality tests.