Leadership, potential, change, motivation, education. These five core standards are on display at HISD’s Eliot Elementary School, which led the campus to become one of only two schools in the district to be named a Leader in Me Lighthouse School.  

This distinction, given by the FranklinCovey Foundation, is given to schools like Eliot Elementary that have produced outstanding results and student outcomes by implementing the Leader in Me Program.  

“Our Eliot family, leaders, and parents worked so hard to reach this milestone for our campus,” said Zandra Aguilar, principal at Eliot. “This accomplishment is important for our school because of the immense value and belief that our Eliot Leaders are the future. We want our leaders to leave Eliot confident that if they continue to apply the 7 Habits in their daily life, anything is possible.”

The Leader in Me program is modeled after the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” by FranklinCovey founder Stephen Covey. 

Following an extensive five years of observations, interviews, and data analysis, the FranklinCovey review team found areas of strength and celebration, as well as room for growth and improvement at Eliot. 

Over the last five years, the school established a system of teaching the 7 Habits year-round. Eliot’s staff built specific time into the school schedule for leadership learning, and all teachers integrated the 7 Habits and leadership principles into their lesson plans.  

The school plans on celebrating their accomplishment by incorporating all they have learned as a team through this process.  

“We synergized to make it happen, and we will synergize to make a great celebration with all involved,” Aguilar said. “The rewards are endless. We learned to work together, listen to each other’s ideas, set goals and kept our end goal in mind.”