Leading by example
Pakou Xiong
Pakou Xiong is an eighth grader at the Nellie Stone Johnson Middle School in North Minneapolis, one of the city’s largest public schools, where she is learning much more than the standard curriculum. Through a University program, Pakou is standing out as a leader.
Pakou is part of Lead Peace, a pilot program focused on preventing violence, creating healthy relationships, and encouraging community service among adolescents. She is one of the program’s ambassadors, serving as a role model to fellow students.
Pakou, who joined Lead Peace as a sixth grader, says she has learned about leadership, compassion, and conflict resolution through the program, which is a joint effort of the Healthy Youth Development – Prevention Research Center (HYD-PRC) in the University’s Department of Pediatrics, the Village, a branch of Hennepin County Social Services, and the Minneapolis Public Schools.
HYD-PRC is one of the nation’s leading sites for adolescent health research, studying the best methods for providing teens with the opportunities and skills to create healthy, productive lives.
On a recent Lead Peace service outing, Pakou read to children at a Minneapolis homeless shelter called Mary’s Place. She also helped prepare meals for the outreach group Feed My Starving Children.
“It made me feel good,” she says of helping others. “I didn’t know a lot about compassion. Now I know what it feels like.”
Pakou says she applies these life lessons at school, and as a result, friends often ask for advice. She also takes these lessons home and says they help her diffuse arguments among her eight siblings. “I try to be a bigger person and walk away,” she says. “It’s another step to making a family a good place.”
“Pakou is just a natural leader,” says Debra Stone, Lead Peace project coordinator. Stone beams with pride when watching Pakou and her other students. “Pakou is a young woman who can be and do many things if given the opportunity and the support of caring adults.”
