I came into Holdsworth skeptical. I left a better leader.

Ethridge Elementary Principal Cyndi Ortiz walked into The Holdsworth Center’s Campus Leadership Program wondering if she had the bandwidth for a two-year journey. She emerged a better leader with a stronger team alongside her.

When I was first asked to participate in The Holdsworth Center’s Campus Leadership Program, my immediate reaction was: How could I possibly commit two years to this journey?

I was a second-year principal. I had a campus to run and a team to build. My plate was overloaded.

Somewhere during that first session, something shifted. I knew this was exactly where I needed to be. I started to feel hope and possibility. Getting to know my peers made me realize we were all struggling with the same things. I didn’t need to have everything figured out. We would figure it out together.

What surprised me most was that Holdsworth started by asking us to focus on ourselves — not just Principal Ortiz but Cyndi. How could I take better care of myself so I could better serve others?

Grounded in my own well-being, I turned my attention to the campus. Three leaders from Ethridge joined me at Holdsworth, which is another unique thing about the program. There is precious little time on a busy campus to sit down with your team members and reflect on problems you may be facing and spend time brainstorming solutions together.

We knew math needed the most work. But as we dug in, we realized the problem wasn’t what we originally thought. Our girls — especially in our bilingual classrooms — had the skills. They just weren’t using them. When we walked into classrooms, we’d see them sitting quietly, hanging back. It wasn’t that they didn’t know the answer. They just didn’t feel comfortable speaking up.

Before Holdsworth, only 22% of 3rd grade girls met the grade level on their STAAR test compared to 49% of the boys.

Holdsworth taught us to slow down and look for root causes before implementing solutions, and to move intentionally, one step at a time. That was different from the way I’d always worked. My instinct, and I think the instinct of most educators, is to jump to the fix. Holdsworth taught me to sit with the question a little longer first.

That pause helped us land on a set of solutions that really worked to get kids engaged and vocal in math class.

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The Holdsworth Center’s Campus Leadership Program is a two-year journey for principals and their teams — building the leadership capacity to identify the right problems, understand why they’re happening, and test solutions that actually work.

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The moment I knew something had really changed happened in a 4^th grade bilingual class.

I was doing a walkthrough. I watched a girl raise her hand. She had never raised her hand before.

When the teacher called on her, she lit up, a big smile on her face. She looked down at her exemplar, gathered herself and answered the question in full. When she was done, she looked over at me and said, “I did it.” Then she winked.

I thought: Yes, honey. You did.

By the end of our Holdsworth journey, we had closed the gender gap. Over 93% of our 4th grade girls showed growth in math and 53% met grade level, up from 22% the previous year.

That kind of moment happens because teachers feel equipped to create it. And that’s the other piece of what changed at Ethridge — our culture.

We do a staff survey every year. The year before I entered the program, 25% of my teachers said they felt confident doing their jobs. By the time we finished our second year, that number was 78%.

That happened because teachers and leaders started collaborating more closely and celebrating the wins. People need to see the fruits of their labor. When it’s just one long grind without acknowledgment, you lose them.

That’s what Holdsworth helped me understand about my own leadership: Taking care of myself and my people isn’t separate from the academic work. It’s the foundation.

I’ll tell you my favorite Holdsworth memory because silly as it sounds, it’s part of how our team built that strong foundation.

One of the learning sessions offered a dance class to help us recharge. We thought we’d walk in and freestyle. When the instructor showed up, it was clear: this was a real dance exercise class. We laughed the entire time and left exhausted and happy. It’s an experience that bonded us so tightly, we still talk about it to this day.

That’s the thing about Holdsworth I didn’t expect. It’s not just a leadership program. It’s a place where, somewhere between hard work and reflection, you remember that you’re a whole person, not just a principal or a teacher. You go back to your campus different, more yourself.

To any principal thinking of joining who is on the fence, I hear you. Two years feels like a lot. But I promise once you get there, you’ll never want to leave.

It’s not work anymore. It’s a calling. It always was. Holdsworth just helped me find my spark again.

Cyndi Ortiz is the principal of Ethridge Elementary in Garland ISD and a 2026 graduate of The Holdsworth Center’s Campus Leadership Program.