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BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-Forty high school students
from around the nation have been selected to spend a week of their
summer breaks on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College learning
how to become leaders and servants in their communities.
Student Leaders in Service, now in its ninth
year, is a residential program for rising high school juniors and
seniors that combines academic coursework on leadership theory with
participation in community service projects.
This year, BSC is offering a program specifically
for young women. The first Student Leaders in Service week will
be held June 16-21 for high school females with the theme "Choices:
Leadership from a Female Perspective." Activities, panels,
and movies will focus on high school females' leadership styles
and the positive choices they have academically, professionally,
physically, and spiritually. The service projects will include the
YWCA and First Light Women's Shelter. A panel will address women's
civic responsibility with speakers such as local TV personality
Fran Curry and former Child Times editor and founder Kay Kornmeier.
The second Student Leaders in Service week,
June 23-28, will be a coed program exploring leadership models and
community involvement. Participants will explore the challenges
of working with groups and meet with influential community leaders.
Service projects will include St. Andrews Community Kitchen, Urban
Ministry, and Outreach Inc.
Both weeks will include tours of the Birmingham
Civil Rights Institute and the Southern Environmental Center. Each
program will conclude with a mock City Council to determine how
to fund the various agencies the students assisted during the week
based on budget proposals submitted by students representing those
agencies.
"The programs offer wonderful opportunities
for students to explore concepts of leadership outside of their
high school environments and begin to understand why problems exist
in the community and what they can do about them," said Jeanne
Jackson, BSC's director of leadership studies and one of the program's
coordinators.
Students from 14 states, including Alabama,
California, Colorado, Indiana, Nebraska, and Washington, D.C., will
begin their week with a ropes course promoting trust among the group,
and work throughout the week with BSC faculty and staff members
on understanding their own leadership styles.
Student Leaders in Service is sponsored by the college's Hess Center
for Leadership and Service. |