Photo courtesy of Samuel Smith.

A Highland senior was shocked to see Principal Angela Hazelett give a speech about his character at the Youth Salute program held at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City September 10.

Samuel Smith was one of eight Highland students among 300 area students from 16 local schools who attended the program, and he was amazed to be one of two students recognized with the Outstanding Youth Leader award.

Smith explains what he believes makes a good leader, “For me it means inspiring other people to do things. Because my life in the end, if I just keep everything to myself and keep all my knowledge in, it’s not going to matter. When I’m gone all the knowledge is gone. So I have to work to spread my knowledge, and to work with other people so they can spread it to other people and then it actually matters.”

Smith received a $500 scholarship and will be attending the National Council on Youth Leadership Town Meeting on Tomorrow in St. Louis, Missouri, in October. Smith is excited to gain more leadership qualities at the event, “I’m looking forward to getting to meet with a lot of people and there’s going to be a lot of classes where we can improve. And I want to improve so I can come back and share it with other people because the big thing that I have to do is get an apprentice in a sense to take over the roles that I have in all three of my activities.”

Smith has been involved in several extracurriculars, the three he’s most involved in are the robotics team, yearbook, and band. He plans on attending the University of Northern Iowa to major in graphic design, but he’s most excited to be involved in their band.