THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408030125
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 3L EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY THOMAS PEAR, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
What appeared to be a '90s remake of the movie ``Saturday Night Fever'' at Virginia Wesleyan College last week was actually the opening ceremony of the 20th Virginia Beach leadership workshop for middle school and high school students.
About 25 college students twisted, swirled and jumped to the dance tune ``The Sign'' by the popular singing group Ace of Base. The dancers were actually counselors and themselves former middle and high school participants in the workshop.
The middle school participants who were there last week were selected by their respective Virginia Beach schools for their leadership potential to spend three days and two nights to learn people management skills and enhance their leadership abilities.
This week, 125 high schoolers are spending five days doing the same thing.
``So far, it's pretty cool,'' said 13-year-old Tony Forgey, who enters eighth grade at Princess Anne Middle School next month.
The week before city public schools sponsored a speech and debate day camp conference for both high schoolers and middle schoolers, where the students developed their speaking skills for forensic competition.
Most of the students at the leadership conference will be class officers and club presidents for the coming school year, said Diane Anderson, coordinator of the workshop and also an assistant student activities coordinator for city schools. But the conference also included marching band drum majors and students in other leadership roles. It even included a few students who have shown leadership potential but who are not yet in leadership roles.
``It is up to the schools to decide,'' Anderson said.
Participants learned about group problem solving and project planning.
``A lot of the kids are not quite sure how to coordinate student activities, so the workshop helps them to learn,'' said counselor Pam Flores, who is now working on her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Maryland.
The training and experience the kids get at the workshop then makes for a smoother beginning for student clubs and organizations when the school year begins this fall.
``When you provide them with practical training then you give them the confidence to perform their leadership roles in their respective schools,'' Anderson noted.
The students also were given time during the seminar to meet with other workshop participants from their school to begin their student organization planning.
``It's a good way for them to start the year out,'' said counselor Pete Campbell, who is wrapping up his sociology master's degree at the College of William and Mary and is a 10-year veteran of the leadership workshop. Campbell spent three years as a student in the program and seven years as a workshop counselor.
But despite the training and organizational skills that are taught at the workshop, the most important lesson the counselors want to instill in both the middle school and high school participants is that leadership is not just an opportunity to hog the limelight. It is an opportunity for service.
``Service in the sense that as leaders they are there to help other people,'' Campbell said.
``We're not just in charge,'' said counselor Mark Roberts as he addressed the 119 young leaders during a group dynamics seminar. ``We have to work with other people.''
The other counselors then dramatized Roberts' point with a skit they put together called the condiment picnic. It taught the fine points of group interaction as a personified ketchup bottle, mustard jar and other necessary picnic spices pulled their thoughts and ideas together to plan a special condiment week.
``Everybody here is really outgoing,'' said 13-year-old Kristen Ellis, an upcoming eighth-grader at Salem Middle School. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by THOMAS PEAR
Counselors at the 20th Virginia Beach leadership workshop for middle
school and high school students portray condiments in a skit called
the condiment picnic. The skit is designed to teach the fine points
of group interaction as the condiment characters pull their thoughts
and ideas together to plan a special condiment week.
Cecile Pagpalunen, 16, left, and Andrea Coleman, 16, work on a
project at the leadership workshop for Virginia Beach middle and
high school student leaders at Virginia Wesleyan College.
Pagpalunen will be junior class treasurer at Salem High when the
school year begins in the fall, while Coleman will be junior class
president at Tallwood High.
by CNB