Redefining Leadership: Learning That Fuels Output

In 2023, Nyankiir, a Pioneer Academics and Kenya Scholar Access Program (KenSAP) alumna in Africa, studied how diabetes affected rural communities in Kenya. The project opened the high schooler’s eyes to how small questions and local insights could lead to large-scale change in health outcomes. What started as research influenced her long-term focus, and she now studies computational neuroscience and global health policy at Harvard.

Her story is a challenge to the traditional idea of leadership.

Rethinking What Leadership Means

We often look at leadership as the end point of learning. It’s the moment where students apply everything they’ve learned to inspire and direct others. In high school, this takes the form of student councils, club presidencies, and other visible positions. 

Yet these titles only tell part of the story. What if leadership starts and drives with learning, not after?

The Summit Theme: To Lead Is to Learn

That question guided the 4th Annual Pioneer Co-Curricular Summit, themed “To Lead Is to Learn.” The idea is transformative: real leadership grows from curiosity, reflection, and the willingness to keep learning long after the lesson ends.

“The day a great leader stops learning is the day they stop being a great leader,” wrote James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner in Learning Leadership. Its research backs this up. More active learners tend to take more initiative and demonstrate stronger leadership behaviors. 

A Johns Hopkins University study about Pioneer students’ behaviors in college shows that underserved students who complete the Pioneer Research Institute often become more confident self-starters once they reach college.

For educators, to lead is to learn means staying curious about the world their students are growing up in. It means:

1. Learning about new generational mindsets and motivations.
2. Learning how the educational landscape continues to evolve.
3. Learning how to inspire and guide prospective students effectively in a rapidly changing environment.

For students, to lead is to learn means developing the mindset and habits that sustain growth. It means:

1. Learning to think critically and question assumptions.
2. Learning to take ownership of personal development.
3. Learning to understand and value perspectives different from their own.

Experts from professional career development, higher education, college admissions, and secondary education came together at the Pioneer Summit to explore “To Lead Is to Learn” from these many angles.

What Curiosity & Leadership Mean for Colleges, From Curiosity to Leadership

As Caltech’s Melissa Rodriguez and TeenSHARP’s Sara Petty emphasized, students don’t lead by checking boxes. They lead by learning. The strongest applications grow from curiosity, risk-taking, and the pursuit of authentic interests.

But many students wonder where that curiosity begins. How do you discover real interests or learn to take meaningful risks?

No Longer a Box to Check: The Practical Way to Grow Curiosity

Diana Kander, entrepreneur, author of The Curiosity Muscle, and Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation. offered a practical answer. She reminded students that leadership starts with curiosity and that in a world changing too quickly for rigid plans, curiosity rather than certainty is the most valuable skill for future leaders. 

Kander introduced a weekly “Curiosity Hour,” encouraging students to experiment, tinker, and reflect on what can be improved. From “hunting zombies” (dropping low-value habits) to building a “pit crew” of collaborators, she showed that curiosity is something that can be developed. It’s how learners build the adaptability and creative confidence that define genuine leadership, and the kind of growth colleges should seek to recognize.

Learning to Lead in Practice with Resilience

Pioneer’s Academic R&D Director Brian Cooper, Professor David Gatchell of Northwestern University, and the Associate Dean of College of Art and Sciences of Oberlin College, extended this idea, noting that once curiosity takes hold, resilience and collaboration turn it into action. He and his co-panelists urged students to see leadership as a practice. It’s one that grows through teamwork, reflection, and learning to thrive in ambiguity.

Learning to be Responsible and Reflective: Lead in Times of Uncertainty

Across all sessions, a unifying message emerged: leadership begins with how you learn and how you adapt. Whether it was Justin Mohney, Director of Recruitment in the Office of Admission at Carnegie Mellon University, and Matthew Jaskol, Founder and Director of Pioneer Academics, urging students to use AI thoughtfully without losing authenticity, or Bruce Hammond, Vice Principal of Tsinglan School, reminding international applicants to stay resilient and purposeful amid global uncertainty, each perspective returned to the same idea. Learning—curious, reflective, and grounded in self-awareness—is what builds an edge that lasts beyond admissions.

And that brings us back to Nyankiir.

She did not lead by chasing titles. She led by learning first: by asking questions, gathering community perspectives, and letting insight reshape her path. The curiosity she practiced became the foundation for the leadership she now carries into her studies.

Her story shows what this summit affirmed. Leadership grows in the moments when you stay open, seek to understand, and let learning change you.