The Leader In Me program is inspired by Stephen Covey’s ‘7-Habits of Highly Effective People’ and is a model, impacting leadership, culture, and academics. Money for the program was made through a grant from the Koch Foundation.

Dr. Daryl Hagan, Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Evansville, says, “So that when teachers are teaching students, are interacting with students, are collaborating they’re putting first-things-first and they’re understanding what that means. They’re using the habits to really utilize those habits in their daily lives and more specifically in the classroom.”

School officials believe this model will help the continuous improvement in Catholic education. 13 schools in the Diocese will participate in this new program and will receive grant money.

Trisha Memmer, a teacher at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Newburgh, says, “It really has the seven habits that we can incorporate in our school day it strengthens our Catholic identity, we are definitely able to really embody what this model will mean for our future.”

The model will be implemented for k-12th graders across 13 schools in the Diocese.

Hagan says, “In order to move students from point a to point b and then c, d, e, and f, we need to know that there is the right mix there that we have the right parameters set up.”

Faculty and staff will go through a three year professional and development training. The first two days of training focuses on teachers and they bring those skills to the classroom on the final day.

Memmer says, “We all have those leadership skills we all have qualities we can use to become better leaders and more successful.”

Leaders say people have been grateful for their time and money and they appreciate everything.

Hagan said, “This recent donation and gift from the Koch’s is a perfect example of how coming together when the community cares about their kids and Catholic schools provide such a quality Catholic academic education it’s a win-win for everyone.”

Diocese officials say while 50 percent of the schools have the Leader In Me program, they hope to expand the program to other schools in the near future.