The Self-Leadership Series: The 10 Initiations

A Transformative, School-Ready Curriculum for Grades 11–12

The Self-Leadership Series: The 10 Initiations is a research-aligned, student-centered curriculum designed to help high school students reconnect with themselves, build emotional intelligence, and develop the confidence to lead their own lives with clarity and integrity.

Created for Health Education, SEL, Advisory, Psychology, Social Studies, and ELA, this series guides students through ten intentionally sequenced lessons that move from awareness to empowerment. Each initiation invites students to pause, reflect, question cultural norms, and strengthen their inner compass in a developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed way.

What Makes this Program Different

  • Whole-student focus: Students explore identity, self-worth, boundaries, empathy, intuition, resilience, and purpose.
  • Critical thinking + emotional literacy: Lessons blend reflection, discussion, journaling, media analysis, and perspective-taking.
  • Safe and inclusive by design: Emphasizes observation over disclosure, honoring personal boundaries and diverse experiences.
  • Classroom-ready: Fully structured lessons with prompts, activities, assessments, and alignment to Common Core and CASEL competencies.
  • Grounded and practical: Includes optional guided meditations and real-world applications students can use immediately.

The Journey Students Take

  • Question unhealthy “normal” patterns and trust their own truth
  • Stop taking others’ behavior personally and build empathy
  • Reconnect with authenticity and self-respect
  • Develop a healthy inner dialogue and sense of personal power
  • Listen to intuition, follow inspiration, and persevere through challenges
  • Reflect on growth and learn to trust their life journey

The Outcome

Students leave with stronger self-awareness, improved emotional regulation, healthier relationships, and the confidence to make choices aligned with who they truly are, skills that support both academic success and lifelong well-being.

The Self-Leadership Series is not about fixing students.
It is about helping them remember who they are and teaching them how to lead from that place.

Lesson 1: Facing the Hard Truth

This lesson focuses on helping students recognize that many “normal” aspects of modern life, such as constant stress, comparison, perfectionism, hiding emotions, or overworking, often come from cultural standards and societal pressure.
Students begin developing the critical-thinking skill of noticing: observing what feels “off”, questioning the status quo, and trusting their own internal truth.

Lesson 2: What You See in Others Reflects What is Inside Them

This lesson focuses on helping students understand that people’s actions, especially challenging ones, often come from their own stress, hurt, or emotional burdens. Students learn not to take interactions personally and begin to view conflicts through a lens of awareness, emotional intelligence, and empathy.

Lesson 3: Find Your Way Back to You

This lesson focuses on understanding how peer pressure and the desire to please others can cause students to lose touch with who they really are. Students learn how to reconnect with their authentic selves.

Lesson 4: Be Your Own Best Friend

This lesson focuses on recognizing that the relationship that a student has with him/herself shapes all other relationships. Students learn how self-kindness, self-respect, and self-focus support emotional well-being.

Lesson 5: Look at How Far You have Come

This lesson focuses on students’ personal growth and recognizing how past experiences have shaped who they are today. Students are encouraged to place attention toward who they are becoming.

Lesson 6: Own Your Power

This lesson focuses on students exploring their personal agency and decision-making, learning to recognize when fear, doubt, or others’ opinions influence their choices, and how to reclaim their personal power.

Lesson 7: Listen to Your Inner Voice

This lesson focuses on students exploring the concept of intuition and awareness, learning to recognize and trust their inner voice as a guide for making decisions that align with their values and well-being.

Lesson 8: Follow What Lights You Up

This lesson focuses on students exploring their personal inspirations, passions, and dreams, learning how what excites and energizes them can guide meaningful choices about their future.

Lesson 9: Keep Going

This lesson focuses on students exploring perseverance, learning that healing, growth, and change take time. Students are encouraged to continue forward through challenges by focusing on small, meaningful steps rather than giving up.

Lesson 10: Trust the Journey

This lesson focuses on students exploring that difficult or painful experiences can lead to growth, meaning, and unexpected opportunities. Students are encouraged to trust the process of life even when outcomes are unclear.