What an amazing training Uswege and I had last week! The location was Star High Secondary School, one of our partners. We had 30 students participating in a 6-day workshop on leadership, communication, confidence, goal setting, community service, and project planning, in collaboration with RENEW. We had such a fabulous time with these teens as we watched them change and grow throughout the training.
Day 1:
We began with introductions to us, TFFT, and RENEW, as we got to know the students as well. We moved from there to Leadership and Power. In this topic we discussed what constitutes leadership and how we use our influence to lead people towards our goals. Uswege and I like to use a lot of games and activities to drive home points and keep things lively!
Student “Aha Moment” of the day: “I realized that there is a leadership spirit within everyone. And it doesn’t take for one to be elected or appointed to be a leader. Everyone is a leader within different ways in different situations.”
Day 2:
Next we tackled values and self-awareness. Uswege led a fabulous exercise in discovering what our individual values truly are and we followed with self-awareness. For this activity, we had students recognize strengths they saw in themselves and in other people. Students then received feedback from their peers of what other see in them. The outcome was awesome as students felt buoyed by the words of encouragement and knowledge of what others see in them.
After lunch we introduced the students to the importance of community service and how they can impact their homes, schools, and communities at large!
Student “Aha Moment” of the day: “I learned different values that are within me, which I realized, and others (my friends) realized but I didn’t know them and also I learned the importance of community service in our society through youth.”
Day 3:
Our day began with an exercise in Vision, helping students to picture and imagine their lives in 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years. This led directly into goal setting, helping students identify their goals. While it may sound elementary, once students have established their personal values and seen a vision of their life, their goals take on a whole new life. Instead of students setting academic goals for their report card, they set academic goals because they know it will influence their futures! As the workshop progresses, we see students taking responsibility for their future instead of simply waiting to see what happens. Because of this, students take responsibility for their current actions as well.
Student “Aha Moment” of the day: “Today I have learned about how to set a goal in my life and I discovered my dream. I know that in my life I can be an important person in this world. I learned also the ways that I can use to achieve my goal. I got the best methods of planning and managing to reach my goal.”
Day 4:
One of my FAVORITE days—Gender and Relationships! Gender is always an interesting topic that allows students to be open and honest about their feelings and their culture in regards to men and women. Obviously arguments inevitably begin, which makes the conversation all the more lively. Obviously gender beliefs revolve heavily around the culture in which you are living, thus we leave the students with one thought: What we think about gender roles is not absolute and is not constant. Just because it has been one way doesn’t mean it has to be that way—if you don’t like it, be part of changing it!
Relationship Skills isn’t what you think it is. While we do discuss “romantic” or “intimate” relationships (always a popular topic amongst the teens), our focus is on having healthy relationships in ALL areas of their lives.
Lastly we covered types of community service and engagement so student could begin to understand the depth of service projects!
Student “Aha Moment” of the day: “I learned on how to make a relationship better. Also how to make and choose good friends. I also learned about gender equality and have changed after the lesson, after realizing that there is no big difference between men and women it is only what is in our thoughts which brings the oppression of one gender.”
Day 5:
Communication and Emotional Intelligence & Management were the life skills topics of the day. Teaching students good communication skills is critical for developing leaders of all types. Being able to understand and control your emotions is equally needed. These two skills are not easy to develop and I’m sure we all know adults who could work on these traits!
We finished the day with community problem identification. The goal was to have students identify problems they see in their communities by breaking them into teams for brainstorming. Students began cautiously, but slowly gained confidence and creativity in the answers!
Student “Aha Moment” of the day: “Today I have learned a lot of things that make me more wise. I’m sure now I have already got self-awareness and indeed I can change my community positively. Thank you my teachers!! Uswege and Chloe – wow!!”
Day 6:
Our last day was both inspiring and sad. We were so sad to be parting with this group of students we had gotten to know so well, but so happy to see them working together on project solutions and using all the skills we had covered over the week!
Students worked hard to identify specific problems, brainstorm solutions, and come up with basic project plans that THEY will implement!
Student “Aha Moment” of the day: “I learned how to make a project become successful and also I realized sharing new ideas within a group brings about success.”
The feedback we received from students was fabulous (including receiving 3 personal letters to Uswege and I speaking of the impact of the workshop)! Not only did students enjoy the workshop, but were asking for more!
We will certainly be back at Star High to follow up with teachers, administration, and students to make sure the improvement and changes we expect to see in students are support and come to fruition! We can’t wait!