On February 28
th, 2014, the Cache Valley Volunteer Center sponsored a Youth Leadership Summit. This event was held on the Utah State University campus and was designed to teach high school students a variety of leadership skills with an emphasis on the fact that all of the youth can become leaders and get involved in service in their community.
Students from all three local high schools were invited: Mountain Crest, Skyview, and Logan High School. There were 181 students who pre-registered for the event. The event consisted of a wide variety of workshops, great speakers, and an opportunity to participate in multiple service projects.
The day started with a meet and greet that the students participated in while waiting for others to arrive and before they split into groups. A light breakfast was also served, and the youth got to know each other by playing a game where the students would throw a beach ball with questions written on it to each other. When a student caught the ball they would answer a question about themselves from the ball.
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| Students listening to their classmate answer a question about themselves |
After the meet and greet, the students were split into groups for a couple of workshops focused on key leadership qualities the youth need to develop, and also showed that anyone can be a leader.
Workshop 1: Who/What is a Leader?
This activity involved making a "board of directors" of things that were leaders and helped guide people in their lives. Allowed to pick real people, fictional people, or animals, the students were able to come up with a wide variety of role models and leaders in their life. Multiple people picked their pets, but the most common had to be Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter!
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| Group of Students showing their own Board of Directors |
Workshop 2: Problem Solving as a Leader
When people encounter a problem, someone needs to take charge and solve the problem they have encountered. Sometimes they need to work together or bend the rules in order to make a decision and sometimes they don't have much time to make the decision. The second workshop students participated in was a game called "Musical Paper Bags". This game involved students having to all be touching a bag with their foot. They had to move around while music was playing and once time was up they all had 3 seconds to be touching the bags. It was easy at first because of all of the paper bags but after every round, more and more bags were taken away. Students started to get crafty by putting their feet in the bags to make more room, or ripping the bag up into smaller pieces so more people could fit their feet on it.
Working together to get their feet on the bags caused trouble and some people even tried to think about themselves instead of as a team.
Workshop 3: Communication is more than Words
Leaders do not just need to talk, sometimes they need to communicate by actions, signs, or writing. Leaders are not always around to help others and need to be able to communicate besides just talking. That is why for the final workshop the students did a silent line up. The object of this activity is to get people in a certain order (alphabetically, youngest to oldest, etc.) without leaving the tape and without talking. They had to work together to move past each other. Certain groups had difficulty because multiple leaders emerged but didn't communicate with each other. Others didn't specify what their age or name was correctly so they didn't end up in the right spot. Some groups wanted to do different line up challenges and had to line up alphabetically by their favorite animal!
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This group used hand signals to communicate their middle names
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| This group used animal signs to line up by their favorite animal |
Following the workshops the students had a wonderful experience of listening to the newly elected mayor of Logan City, Mayor Craig Peterson. He spoke to them about how people who had no connections, no power, and who were maybe even unheard of rise up and become amazing leaders. He explained to them how leadership isn't something you are born with; it's a set of skills you can develop and anyone can become a leader if they are willing to put forth the effort.
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Timothy McFall presenting Craig Peterson with a book about service titled "Changing the World"
The book was signed by the students, thanking him for speaking to us.
This event was sponsored by the Cache Valley Volunteer Center in support of their newly forming YOUth Advisory Council. The YOUth Advisory Council was designed to get students involved in service, to provide opportunities for networking and collaboration, to provide resources to youth service groups throughout the valley, and to help the schools work together to better the community
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Next came lunch- pizza, salad, and lots of goodies!
Following lunch the students participated in several different service projects and learned how they can get more involved on campus and help certain groups on campus.
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Students wrote to people serving in the military
"Letters to Soldiers" is a project to help those who serve know that
they are loved and important to those who don't even know them.
Students also wrote to the elderly and made cards to be delivered to the local assisted living center.
This project sponsored by Generations United, MetLife Foundation and AARP's MentorUp! initiative. |
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Another service project involved having the students make safe driving posters encouraging drivers to follow the rules of the road, not drink and drive, nor use their phones while driving and just be courteous to others on the road. This project went along with a year-long YOUth in the Driver's Seat initiative, sponsored by State Farm and Youth Service America (YSA). It also provided an excellent kick-off event for the ActOutLoud/AllState Foundation Safe Driving rallies that each of the high schools will be planning and hosting in April.
Another favorite service project was a collaboration with Aggie Bikes. Students learned proper bike safety and basic bike mechanic tips. They were also taught how they can help Aggie Blue Bikes to support their future colleagues and classmates who attend USU.
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Students also had an opportunity to participate in two service presentations:
Nicole Crow from Options for Independence talked to the youth about how to involve youth with disabilities and appropriate vocabulary to use when referring to persons with disabilities.
Also, Valeria, one of the TEAM Mentoring youth leaders, reported on her recent humanitarian trip to Samoa.
She helped the other students learn how they can get involved in similar travel opportunities through volunteer work.
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This event was a great success and we are thankful for all the help we received!
Many thanks to
Service for Peace (www.serviceforpeace.org) and the Commission on Civic and Character Education for funding this event. Without them it would not have been possible.
Also we want like to thank Generations United, MetLife Foundation, MentorUp!, Aggie Blue Bikes, Youth Service America, and State Farm for providing us with service projects for the students to do.
A huge Thank You to the
Cache Food Pantry for donating breakfast and goodies to go with lunch.
Thank you to Mayor Peterson for speaking with the students and most importantly we would like to thank the students and leaders who came to the event to learn how to be a leader and how they can help serve in the community. Without these people, the world would not become a better place!
If you would like more information about getting involved with the Cache Valley Volunteer Center's YOUth Advisory Council you can email us at info@cachevolunteercenter.org or CLICK HERE to fill out the application form.
