|
|
|
PITTSBURG —
Five hundred sixth graders from eight schools took an important step toward becoming future leaders when they participated in the 2012 Crawford County Youth Leadership program.
They were honored Wednesday in a graduation ceremony at Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium. Crawford County Youth Leadership is a program of the Pittsburg Area Chamber Foundation.
“I get to be the first one to congratulate you on graduating from Youth Leadership,” said Blake Benson, Chamber president.
Participating were students in Arma Elementary School, Cherokee Attendance Center, Frontenac Junior High School, Girard Middle School, McCune Attendance Center, Pittsburg Community Middle School, St. Mary’s Colgan Elementary School and Weir Attendance Center.
Facilitators visited with sixth graders once a month and gave presentations on themes such as diversity, conflict resolution, team work, communication skills and servant leadership. Youngsters also participated in activities designed to help teach these concepts.
“It’s our hope that you’ll use these skills for the rest of your lives,” Benson said. “In four or five years you will be entering the workforce and getting jobs. Employers are looking for people like you.”
Destry Brown, Pittsburg USD 250 superintendent, told the students his definition of a leader.
“To me it means you do the right thing even when nobody is watching,” he said.
Harvey Dean, founder of Pitsco, told the sixth graders that he was not a good student when he was in school.
“I probably had a little bit too much fun in some of my classes, but that doesn’t mean you will not be successful,” he said. “I want you to remember three letters — MVP.”
For Dean, those letters do not stand for Most Valuable Player, but for Motivate, Vision and Plan.
“Find something you are motivated to do, have a vision of something you can do and a plan on how to do it,” Dean said.
Mark Johnson told the students that they represent the future of Crawford County.
“You’ve heard the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child,” he said. “It takes empowered youth to raise a community.”
He did a demonstration of developing memory skills by “painting a picture” in their minds, a technique developed by Socrates around 3,000 years ago.
Johnson said later that the Youth Leadership program started in 2003 with four volunteers in three classrooms.
“Barb McClaskey, Pat Forbes, James Marquardt and Buddy Gorentz were the volunteers, and I think there were about 60 kids in the three classrooms,” he said. “The most classes we ever had was 27.”
Five hundred sixth graders from eight schools took an important step toward becoming future leaders when they participated in the 2012 Crawford County Youth Leadership program.
They were honored Wednesday in a graduation ceremony at Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium. Crawford County Youth Leadership is a program of the Pittsburg Area Chamber Foundation.
“I get to be the first one to congratulate you on graduating from Youth Leadership,” said Blake Benson, Chamber president.
Participating were students in Arma Elementary School, Cherokee Attendance Center, Frontenac Junior High School, Girard Middle School, McCune Attendance Center, Pittsburg Community Middle School, St. Mary’s Colgan Elementary School and Weir Attendance Center.
Facilitators visited with sixth graders once a month and gave presentations on themes such as diversity, conflict resolution, team work, communication skills and servant leadership. Youngsters also participated in activities designed to help teach these concepts.
“It’s our hope that you’ll use these skills for the rest of your lives,” Benson said. “In four or five years you will be entering the workforce and getting jobs. Employers are looking for people like you.”
Destry Brown, Pittsburg USD 250 superintendent, told the students his definition of a leader.
“To me it means you do the right thing even when nobody is watching,” he said.
Harvey Dean, founder of Pitsco, told the sixth graders that he was not a good student when he was in school.
“I probably had a little bit too much fun in some of my classes, but that doesn’t mean you will not be successful,” he said. “I want you to remember three letters — MVP.”
For Dean, those letters do not stand for Most Valuable Player, but for Motivate, Vision and Plan.
“Find something you are motivated to do, have a vision of something you can do and a plan on how to do it,” Dean said.
Mark Johnson told the students that they represent the future of Crawford County.
“You’ve heard the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child,” he said. “It takes empowered youth to raise a community.”
He did a demonstration of developing memory skills by “painting a picture” in their minds, a technique developed by Socrates around 3,000 years ago.
Johnson said later that the Youth Leadership program started in 2003 with four volunteers in three classrooms.
“Barb McClaskey, Pat Forbes, James Marquardt and Buddy Gorentz were the volunteers, and I think there were about 60 kids in the three classrooms,” he said. “The most classes we ever had was 27.”
The program grew, he said, because it was a win-win situation for the schools.
“We do all the teaching, provide all the props, the school is not out any money or any release time,” Johnson noted.
The students also win.
“I think you could use some of the skills we learned,” said Eric Underwood, McCune Attendance Center.
He also enjoyed the activities, including one exercise in which the students had to get toothpaste back into the tube.
“You can shove it back in, or what some people did that worked pretty well was put it in your mouth and push it back in that way,” Underwood said. “It wasn’t too bad. It was minty.”
Mitch Hess, Frontenac Junior High, said he helped put the toothpaste back in the tube, but not by mouth.
Jake Wilbert, also of Frontenac , said he enjoyed the magic carpet exercise where students had to work together to flip over the carpet.
“My behavior has been a lot better since the program,” he said.
Cody Evans, also of Frontenac, said that the program has helped him with school.
“It’s also changed the way I talk to people,” Evans added.
Johnson said that 2013 will be the 10th year for Crawford County Youth Leadership, and discussions are being held now on ways to make it bigger and better. He has set high goals for the program.
“I want the kids to take what they’ve learned and make Crawford County the best place on the planet to live,” he said.
