On the Cover: Multitalented Mitchell

     "I try to go through life smiling, no matter what my circumstances happen to be, and to influence or help others around me, by focusing on the positives in daily situations," says Todd Mitchell, the state and national president of Beta Club. Accomplishing this mission isn't hard for the Dixie County High School senior. The Steinhatchee resident has plenty to grin about—he's the first national Beta Club president from Florida. He also plays defensive end and tight end on his school's football team and participates in church activities regularly.
     As Beta Club president, Mitchell, 17, spends most of his time organizing local service projects. "We work with March of Dimes a lot," he says. "In September, we sold tickets for an ice cream social at our school for students to get out of class fifth period—we raised a lot of money."
     While Beta Club is a national group, the local branches of the organization choose service projects based on community needs and the prior year's activities with one of the main goals being out-doing prior successes. "We just try to beat however much money we raised and involvement we got the year before," Mitchell says.
     He not only leads his group in raising money for national charities, but Mitchell also initiates programs that help local citizens. "We make Thanksgiving baskets for people who can’t afford to have a nice Thanksgiving," he says. "We get food from our own homes, and it's not just the old stuff that nobody eats. We even cook the food sometimes and put it in their baskets."
     Although Mitchell is also involved in Students Working Against Tobacco and the Spanish Club, he doesn't limit his extracurriculars to school organizations. "I sing on Sundays with a group of people from my church—we all call ourselves the Praise Team," he says. "We practice every Sunday before the morning and evening church services." Mitchell explains that through his involvement at First Baptist Church, he's become the leader he is today. "Jesus Christ loved me enough to die on the cross for me—I think that shows more leadership qualities than I’ve ever seen."
     While Mitchell is now comfortable professing his faith, expressing his beliefs was a more difficult task in the past. "I used to have a problem praying in public, now I lead the football team in prayer," he says. "Our coach takes us out to eat before games on Friday and I used to struggle to say grace, because I thought praying wasn’t the cool thing to do. Then I learned that it was just in my mind—my teammates are really supportive."
     Along with interfering with his personal religious feelings, Mitchell knew hiding his religious opinions also conflicted with his leadership ideals. "The way people view me is really important. I don’t want people to see me as a hypocrite. I don’t want to say something and not do it," he explains. "I just want people to actually view me as a leader all the time, not just when I’m supposed to be one. I know that people look up to me."
     During the Beta Club campaign, Mitchell only promised voters that he would do his best in office and now he's reaping the rewards for setting realistic goals. "I met Gov. Jeb Bush for winning the National Beta Club president position," he says. "I’ve also met tons of friends through conferences. These are people I’ve only known a few months, and I feel closer to them than people I’ve known my whole my life."
     He also says active participation in Beta Club will help him with his professional life. "I've had to get up in front of 4,000 people and give a speech," he says. "I want to sell real estate and you have to deal with people every day in that field, and being in Beta Club is helping me with my people skills.
     "Being in Beta Club also helps in school, because you have to have a 3.0 and you work hard to keep it—that looks good on college applications," Mitchell says. "But once I started going to conventions I discovered there was more to Beta Club than that, I started to realize that these are real leaders I work with, true leaders who stand up for what they believe in and strive to become better."
     Mitchell explains that it's important for future officers to know perseverance is a must to be a good leader and that he's learned this through first hand experience. "When I was in the seventh-grade I was taken out of public school, because I had fallen behind and I had to make up two years of school to catch up," he says. "My mom stayed home that year to help me, and I started back to school my eighth-grade year on time. Now I’m the national Beta Club president—it just shows you not to give up."

Visit www.betaclub.org for more information. To be on the cover of Florida Leader contact Publisher Butch Oxendine at info@studentleader.com or at 888-547-6310.