Senior Group Leader Dalyn Woody represented students of St. Benedict’s at the Concordia Summit on September 19, where he spoke about student leadership at the Hive.

According to its website, Concordia is a non-profit organization that enables public-private partnerships to create a more prosperous and sustainable future.  During the Concordia Summit, the world’s most prominent business, government, and nonprofit leaders came together to examine the some of the world’s difficult challenges and identify means for collaboration.

Dalyn was invited to the Concordia Summit through R. Brad Lane, Co-Founder and CEO of  RIDGE-LANE Limited Partners and also a speaker at the summit, who had visited St. Benedict’s with SBP Board of Trustees member Ron Beit and liked what he saw.

“By all accounts, Mr. Lane was impressed with us,” Chief Advancement Officer Michael Fazio said. “Mr. Lane realized that the Summit’s panel on education did not include a student voice.  He asked if we could recommend one.”

Dalyn spoke at the panel about student leadership in K-12 education.

“I basically spoke about how leadership works and the role it plays at St. Benedict’s,” he said.

During the conference, different topics within K-12 education were discussed, one of which was the change in students’ needs. Dalyn took this opportunity to then talk about the school’s counseling program.

“And everyone fell in love with it,” Dalyn said. “Afterwards, a man named Thomas Ridge, who’s the Co-founder & Executive Chairman of RIDGE-LANE Limited Partners, came up to me and said, ‘Throughout this whole meeting, that was the most important thing you said.’”

Dalyn described his experience representing St. Benedict’s at the Concordia Summit as outstanding.

“I’ve never had an experience like this,” he said. “Walking in as the only student, I thought people would look down on me. But actually, being the only student, people actually looked up to me.”

This experience also helped Dalyn to realize the passion he has built for the school. “Most people would see it as ‘Oh, we’re showing Benedict’s off,’” he said. “But I see it as a chance to give people a better understanding of the school and what we do.”