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Teens participate in workshop
Students speak out against drugs and texting while driving
Friday, Aug. 13, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JESSE YEATMAN
Participants Brendan Tomasic, left, and Nikolai Yamaner leave a St. Mary's College of Maryland dormitory recently with Julia Boudrye, a staff member of Maryland Leadership Workshops, at the conclusion of a four-day leadership camp for high-school students.
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Students at the Youth Leadership Program presented their feelings on the dangers of drug use and texting while driving.
As part of the four-day residential program held in June at St. Mary's College of Maryland, the four dozen high school students split into two groups and chose to create a marketing campaign for something about which they felt passionate.
One presentation sought to deter teens from texting while driving, which is now against the law in Maryland. The other group created an anti-drug campaign the students called Revolution Against Drug Abuse.
"It allowed us to use the skills we just learned effectively," said Tim Hodge, a junior at St. Mary's Ryken High School.
Hodge was one of several students who incorporated a personal story about the effects of someone else's drug use.
He said after the presentation that he grew so close to the group that it was not that hard to share the personal story in front of his peers and the judges.
C.J. Bell, 16, penned two raps to highlight the dangers of texting while driving. Under the performance name of Young King, Bell rhymed his message during his group's presentation, an effective tool, according to the judges.
The Westlake High School junior said that he liked the camp and learned a lot.
"It's a helpful program and it really gets you thinking," Bell said.
The Youth Leadership Program offered hands-on workshops, activities and group projects for the high-school students.
The program was run by staff members from the Maryland Leadership Workshops, which are staffed by young professionals with various leadership backgrounds in education, youth services, business, law and student organizations.
Farah Sheikh, a facilitator with Maryland Leadership Workshops, said that the leadership program is designed to show that "anyone can be a leader."
Many of the participants came in on the first day too shy to speak barely a word, she said.
By the last day of the camp, everybody knew one another's names and they were emboldened to share personal stories out loud during the presentations.
"It's amazing," Sheikh said.
Students at the program are from St. Mary's, Calvert and Charles county high schools.
"It took a lot of courage for all of you to do that," said Chris Longmore, a local attorney and board member of Leadership Southern Maryland, which sponsored the four-day residential program. Longmore and several other members of the group acted as judges during the presentations.
He said they could not determine which campaign was better.
"Each of you chose something you cared about," and used effective leadership techniques along with teamwork, he said.
Nikolai Yamaner, a St. Mary's Ryken senior, signed up for the camp to help him get into the National Honor Society.
On Wednesday as he packed up to leave, he said the experience turned out to be much more than he thought it would be.
"They told me I needed more leadership and I thought, ‘what better way than to attend a leadership camp?' But I actually learned a lot and met a lot of fun people," Yamaner said.
