Flathead High School senior Elijah Williams is a dedicated, compassionate and faith-driven student who leads with purpose.   

The senior student body president and recipient of the Winslow Nichols Leadership Award, didn't start high school actively seeking leadership roles. It wasn't until he joined the Brave Mentoring program, encouraged by a teacher to do so, that his interest in participating in school outside of academics grew.  

“My freshman, sophomore year, I wasn’t really involved in anything, and then sophomore year I signed up for the Brave Mentoring program because I heard you could, like, get out of class once every other week,” the 4.0 student said with candor.   

“And then I started to love being in that leadership role, and just the community that it built, and then it started to become ... less of getting out of class and more of getting to be together with a bunch of leaders and just kind of build that community,” he added.  

By sophomore year, Williams became an executive mentor to help train new mentors, upperclassmen who are paired with freshmen and tasked with offering support and guidance throughout the school year to help ease the transition from middle to high school.  

“It helped me get over my fear of public speaking because as a mentor and as an exec, you have to get up in front of the class and speak to people,” he said, every other week.  

Mentors also lead meetings about different topics or have heart-to-heart, closed-door conversations as a class, with the intention to help students feel comfortable enough among their peers to share concerns and talk freely to strengthen communication and connection.  

THROUGH THE years, he has gained a reputation for lending a hand with whatever tasks are needed.  

"Involved in many areas at Flathead, Elijah has particularly shown his leadership in his senior year on student council as the driving force behind some of our best community building events, including homecoming week, Special Olympics, and the upcoming school blood drive,” said Flathead Career Center Manager, Kristin Bay, who nominated Williams for the leadership award.  

The Winslow Nichols Leadership Award recognizes the academic achievement and community involvement of high school students who contribute to improving the lives of others and is sponsored by Logan Health in collaboration with the Daily Inter Lake.    

In Bay's nomination letter, she quoted other FHS educators who spoke about Williams as a student leader, including business teacher Caitlin Heuscher, who said he is an “empathetic and kind student who leads with both his heart and his hard work.”   

“Elijah’s innovative mindset and strong work ethic set him apart, while his genuine care for others makes him someone everyone enjoys being around. He embodies the true spirit of leadership — someone who lifts others up while always striving to grow himself,” Heuscher said. 

Williams’ leadership extends outside of Flathead. He has collaborated with Glacier High School to establish Brave Pack Rising, “a community organization driven to provide shared opportunities for students from both schools,” Bay said.  

He is also active at the church he attends, Central Bible Church, where he is a youth group member and teaches children about faith during vacation Bible school in the summer. Faith and religion are important to Williams, who belongs to the Flathead chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  

He said Christianity and the Bible serve as his moral compass. For other people, he said, it may be a different belief system that serves as a motivator to become a better person/leader.  

“I think it gives you a bigger reason to do things and I think seeing the areas of life that you need to improve on, through your moral system, whether it’s religious or not religious.” 

APPROACHABILITY AND personability are key to his leadership style and ensuring people’s opinions are heard before decisions are made. He said participating in a variety of activities allows him to get different perspectives from his classmates. He said student council is a great example with representation from each grade level. This year, he made it his goal to establish an activity council specifically for student leaders in various sports, clubs and activities.   

He said the inspiration for organizing an activity council came from a visit to an Arizona high school during a leadership trip, where he saw various councils/leadership groups in action whose members comprised star athletes to theater students.  

“I took inspiration from that because seeing all those people come together and like be united ... on one council, together. It was kind of cool to see,” he said.  

FHS assistant principal Andrew Stiger said as a student body president, Williams has shown dedication to increasing student participation in activities by leading with purpose.  

“I think it’s good to hear what other people have to say because I really don’t know everything," he said, later adding, “It’s not just about what I think all the time. I think it’s good to hear from other people to get different experiences and different inputs from different areas of life.”  

A result of good leadership, according to Williams, is that people will want to listen to what you have to say and support your ideas and proposals or be willing to “step outside their comfort zone in order to be part of something bigger.”   

When he thinks of a good leader, he thinks of his friend Stephen Riley, who embodied kindness.  

“I think that’s really the heart of it. Just like being understanding, being kind, being uplifting,” Williams said.  

He is also involved in the Special Olympics’ Youth Activation Committee, a leadership group made up of members with and without intellectual disabilities, who work together to “advocate for the respect, inclusion and acceptance of all people, regardless of abilities," according to specialolympics.org.  

Williams said he was encouraged by his geometry teacher to join the committee, having previously volunteered for Camp Promise at Big Sky Bible Camp in Bigfork and a Central Bible Church program called Friday Night Out for people with disabilities to partake in meals, fellowship, music and fun.  

Williams also competes in DECA, a nonprofit organization that prepares students for marketing, finance, hospitality and management careers. In preparation for his postsecondary goal of going into medical school after graduation, he became a member of HOSA — Future Health Professionals and in his fourth year taking Project Lead the Way Biomedical Science classes. 

After graduation, he plans to attend Grand Canyon University, taking the pre-med track while minoring in theology. Currently, his sights are set on optometry, but he said he is keeping his options open, with years of schooling ahead. What led him to become curious about optometry was observing doctors seeking a diagnosis for his own vision problem in one eye. His interest in optometry was further piqued when learning about the eye in a Biomedical 2 class and through dissecting a sheep eye.  

Williams said he’s glad he became involved in school outside of academics. 

"I think if you’re going to school for school, that’s when you start to, like, get in your head and it starts to become too much. But if you get involved and really see that school has so much more to offer, and it’s not just learning, you get to learn how to be a person, be a leader, and I think that’s the joy that I find out of it,” he said.  

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or [email protected]. 

LEARN MORE  

Winslow Nichols Leadership Award nomination criteria:  

Eligibility: High school students in Flathead, Lake, or Lincoln counties.  

Academics: Students who value their education by exhibiting academic responsibility; preferably have a 3.0 GPA or higher.  

Character: Students who display integrity, compassion, service and excellence.  

Citizenship: Students who nurture healthy communities through community service, volunteerism, or other contributions to their community and/or school.  

Leadership: Students who take initiative and are role models for others.  

Forms are available at logan.org/tomorrowsleaders.