SHS senior wins Sullivan Leadership Award

SANDPOINT — Students who pursue Seattle University's Sullivan Leadership Award must go through a dedicated process over several months, as winners receive full tuition, room and board for all four years of undergraduate study.

This year, Sandpoint High School senior and Cedar Post editor-in-chief McCalee Cain pushed through each challenge, becoming the first student from Idaho to win the prestigious award. The Sullivan Leadership is granted to nine students each year and is named for the Rev. William J. Sullivan, who served as president of Seattle University from 1976 to 1996, and as chancellor until his retirement in 2009.

"The program focuses on cultivating leaders who are well equipped to go forth and change the world," Cain said. "So much of the program revolves around reflection and community and being mindful of how you are growing as a leader, and how you can be the best leader that you can be as you grow."

The leadership award was brought to her attention, Cain said, by a family friend and retired Northside Elementary teacher, Jayne Sturm, who thought the award criteria matched Cain's achievements.

Cain said she didn't think about it seriously at first. Nevertheless, she went to Seattle and toured the campus, which she said she "fell in love" with, especially after subsequent visits throughout the leadership award process. After the first visit, she said, she planned to apply for the award, but did not expect to get it.

"It was kind of on a whim," she said. "But it did, indeed, sound a lot like me and I was very intrigued."

So she applied for the award at the same time she applied to Seattle University in October. The application was "typical," she said, requiring an essay, resume and letters of recommendation. She later found out she made it to the first round, an event in January at the university, and subsequently the Sullivan Finalists' Day in March.

Each year, participants in the process are given a theme for the award competition. This year's theme was "the industry of eviction and the cycle of poverty," Cain said, which stemmed from a Pulitzer Prize winning book by author Matthew Desmond titled, "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City." He explored a "unique" problem of eviction that has not been thoroughly explored before, Cain said.

So in the first round of the competition, Cain said she and about 300 other participants were given three articles to read, there was a panel discussion, and then they had to write three essays about the prompt.

"I left that day feeling super inspired," Cain said. "It was so much fun to interact with all the like-minded kids who were really into it, and really inspiring to me to see the other scholars, because that is one of the responsibilities Sullivan scholars have is to attend these functions ... I really looked up to them; I was just enthralled with the program. Driving home with my dad, I remember saying, 'I just learned more than I did in my entire high school career.'"

She soon found out she made it to the next round and, at that point, she said, she started to get her hopes up. The final round required reading Desmond's book, a 15-minute interview, a five-minute speech regarding a prompt that was mailed out prior to the event, and answering questions following the speech. Cain said her prompt was to role play as a City Council member in an area struggling with housing unattainability, to pitch a solution, initiative or program to community members.

While the book focused on the city of Milwaukee, Cain said she decided to focus her project on housing unattainability in rural areas. Ultimately, she said, the plan she presented was a community land trust, with affordable, city-owned houses that could be purchased from the city, with the land owned by the community.

"Once I decided that I wanted to do my presentation on rural eviction, it was simultaneously a relief and a big 'wow, this is going to be a big project,'" she said. "And I was really excited about that, because I recognized that I could study urban eviction all I want, but there is no way I am going to change that. And I was really intrigued by the opportunity to have face-to-face conversations with people in my community." 

The book marks the first time eviction has really been studied, she said, and she became frustrated in trying to research the topic. So Cain said she sought out local community experts to help her along the way, including Debbie Love from the Bonner Community Food Bank, and Jeremy Grimm with the LOR Foundation, who is a former city planner. She also met with several teachers and school staff members to practice her speech and do interview prep.

Her parents, Natalie and Mike Cain, said the amount of people she tapped into as resources, and the amount of hard work she put in was impressive.

"I think the thing I am most proud of is McCalee did this all on her own," Natalie Cain said.

Jeralyn Mire, SHS postsecondary counselor, also pointed out how many people Cain sought out to help her with her project and all of the effort she put forth to get the award.

"She just dug in and got after it," Mire said. "It's exciting to see all of her hard work pay off. And that she has done everything so well and invested herself and worked so hard to see that effort pay off, it's just exciting."

Though she is a family friend and never taught Cain in school, Sturm said whenever she has been asked what she wants most for her students, she likes to refer to the "wise words" of Jane Goodall —  "Your best gift to students is to guide them in believing that they can truly make a difference in both society and the environment. If you provide youth with the necessary skills, knowledge, confidence, and determination to make a difference then you will have succeeded as their teacher."

So when she was visiting with Cain a few months ago, Sturm said the teen shared some of her aspirations in life. 

"I was so impressed with her maturity and sincerity in how she hoped to make her personal imprint," Sturm said. "When I saw the opportunity for The Sullivan Leadership Scholarship at Seattle University, I reached out to McCalee. McCalee took it from there. Her focus and hard work will certainly make a positive imprint far beyond her college years."

In addition to winning the leadership award and serving as editor-in-chief for the Cedar Post this year, Cain was named Idaho Student Journalist of the Year. She also started a feminism club at SHS last year, hosting a school-wide feminine product drive to donate to the food bank.

Cain plans to major in communications with an emphasis in journalism at Seattle University, though she said that is subject to change.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.