Schools are notorious for cliques: jocks, chess clubs, cheerleaders, the list goes on and on. And usually it is frowned upon, but not at Cornerstone.

Leadership Journey is not only a Cornerstone endorsed clique, but a Cornerstone encouraged clique, and in some cases, a Cornerstone demanded clique.

It’s not the people in the clique that bug me. Not them at all. Not even LJ itself. But the fact that it’s forced upon the student body.

LJ is a good leadership camp that should be optional, but instead the two-week summer camp is mandatory, and it doesn’t stop there. Students are encouraged to gel with their own smaller LJ groups throughout the year more so than any other student group.

“All they did was talk,” junior Dave VanDyke said. “It creates cliques, and everybody sticks to their groups.”

The problem is, it’s more of a past administrational clique than a student clique. Most LJ students themselves don’t display the arrogant attitudes you expect from cliques. They’re kind and on fire for God. But former university officials started a rule that won’t let students hold leadership positions at CU without attending LJ. If those officials are gone, why not change the rule?

The logic behind that makes sense: Leadership Journey is designed to train leaders, so Cornerstone student leaders should attend LJ. But the reality of it is ridiculous.

There are plenty of good leaders who go to LJ, just like there are plenty of good leaders who don’t go to LJ.

While many students who attend LJ become effective leaders at Cornerstone, many who attend LJ are also destructive members of the community. Does LJ take responsibility for the bad apples as well as the good ones?

The fact is, those good apples were leaders long before they came to Cornerstone, with or without LJ, and LJ is merely a tool that can aid them. There are tons of good leaders out there, but Cornerstone doesn’t train them all. Did Moses take LJ? Did Peter take LJ? Did Jesus take LJ? No.  And neither did President Joe Stowell, but he’s certainly done a good job without it.

For Cornerstone to think it has a monopoly on leadership training is wrong. Yes, LJ can train them, but so can the rest of life’s experiences. Leaders are made long before LJ in the choices they make and actions they take each moment of their lives.

Leaders like Sara Daum, a transfer student who missed LJ coming in and was denied a chance to run for student body president this year because she couldn’t afford to take LJ this summer.

“It is my opinion that the community should have some type of system in place where exceptions are made,” Simeon Brace, student body president, said.

“Even the most experienced person can learn something from LJ,” he added. “But do people actually need LJ to be good leaders? I don’t think so.”