At Camp 43, Lauren Mora (seated at right) sits in the Oval Office replica at the Bush museum while docent Linda Massey leads a discussion about how the setting of a meeting helps foster rapport. (Photo courtesy of Camp 43)
While most teenagers spend their summer sleeping in, catching Pokemon, and lounging by the pool, Lauren Mora, a Woodrow Wilson 2016 graduate, worked hard to become a better leader at Camp 43 at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
After hearing about the camp through her mother’s boss, Mora thought it would be a good fit and a chance to learn. “I’ve always led others through being captain of the cheer team and Student Council, but have never learned how to lead myself. I wanted to test the waters and do something I am not used to,” Mora says.
According to Camp 43’s website, it is a 3-day camp meant to expose high school students to personal values, principle-based decision making, leading others, and work on cumulative leadership projects. McKenna Rhadigan with Camp 43 says the camp looks for “well-rounded students who are actively involved across the Dallas and Fort Worth area. The goal is that students take the leadership skills they learned and implement them into their personal and professional lives.”
Mora was one of 25 applicants accepted this year and was able to apply her leadership skills in relevant tasks. “We went into the Decision Room in the museum and were put under pressure to fix a situation.” Mora’s team’s goal was to plan a 10-year reunion for their high school. They had a budget and were forced to make decisions in a limited time frame.
During the camp, Mora and her colleagues toured the library, did team-building activities, and took a personality test. She found out that she is an “expressive” personality, which was unsurprising given her roles as a cheer captain and a student government member. “I learned about the good aspects and the drawbacks of being who I am, and I learned who I work with well.”
Mora, who is headed to Texas A&M in the fall, wants to be a business major and eventually be the CEO of a company. She looks forward to putting her leadership skills to work in College Station.
“I’ve learned the importance of networking and it will be great to be a part of the Aggie network,” she says. “It was fun to be in a place with like-minded people.
“In other places, it is much easier to outshine others, but in this situation everyone can learn from each other and see other leadership styles and are able to feed off of each other.”
