Youth are our leaders of tomorrow and those at Gordon F. Kells are preparing for the future through the Student Leadership Team (SLT). In September students will be headed to both Kelowna for the national leadership conference and others will attend Nipawin for the provincial leadership conference.
Students are currently fundraising for their trips and are seeking sponsorship from local businesses as well.
SLT supervisor, Amy Rutten, is proud of the student's accomplishments and is pleased to have seen them grow, which will be reinforced with the students set to attend conferences in September.
"The reason why I'm excited by it, is, I think that our community needs leaders and it's an exciting opportunity because the kids learn how to be a leader, they're inspired to lead... it gives them skills and inspiration for leadership. They're empowered by it..." Rutten explained.
"Our community needs them. They're the future of our community... so the more kids I can encourage to go to leadership conferences and to get those skills, to get those opportunities, and to give them the confidence to be leaders the better."
Rutten said that the group she has for SLT learns how to run a meeting, which is important if they will join a board or committee as adults. They learn how to prepare and follow an agenda while learning how to be financially accountable.
"...you have to learn how to run an effective meeting, how to do finances, how to bring up ideas in a meeting, how to handle ideas that you don't necessarily agree with, and why you're doing things," Rutten said.
"It's not really skills for school, it's sort of life skills on leadership so later on they have the confidence to be a contributing member in our community."
Not only has SLT helped students grow, but those set to attend the Kelowna conference have been developing their skills with choosing and planning their own fundraisers.
"They're fundraising, they've sold beef jerky and are doing a bottle drive," Rutten explained. "And they've gotten some support from some of the community businesses which they're very grateful for. I think it's nice that the community recognizes that this is important, that these kids need these leadership skills and these opportunities."
Rutten plans on taking four students to the national conference and 10 to the provincial conference, only limited by the numbers allocated to each school involved. These students are greatly looking forward to the prospect of going to conferences and have also said they have realized growth in themselves as well.
"I'm definitely more outgoing, I'm able to be in front of people and talking to people," Josh Brown, one of the Kelowna bound students, said. "It's helped me grow as a person too, I'm more responsible and more organized too."
While, Halle Doty, another student headed to Kelowna, explained she used to have difficulty talking on the phone: "I made a phone call this morning about a donation that I didn't want to make, I was kind of terrified, but I don't think i would have done it a couple years ago, I would have been too scared."
All of the students set to attend one of the conferences are looking forward to being amongst others of the same mindset, listening to speakers, and experiencing the overall atmosphere, while taking home new leadership skills and ideas to further their contributions at school.
