Mississippi Valley Program Takes The Lead In Developing Leaders

Set a group of 8th graders loose in the community and you never know what to expect, right? Well, you can relax if those students are involved in the Mississippi Valley 8th Grade Leadership Project.

Last year, for example, one group sponsored an awareness week about homelessness and then held a fund-raiser for the homeless. Another group decided to "take back the school" and developed a series of reward activities for students with good grades and no detentions.

Those are just two of many community- and school-oriented projects developed by students involved in the program operated through the Mississippi Valley Gifted and Talented Coordinators Network, which covers 14 school districts in western Wisconsin. The program has won a grant from the Learning Foundation of Wisconsin. The foundation, affiliated with WEAC, helps fund school improvement projects.

"We must work on developing leadership skills in our students at an early age if we hope to significantly make the development of leaders a priority," says Cindy Zahrte, Tomah's 7-12 gifted and talented coordinator. Leadership program participants:

• Get to meet and work with other young people who have leadership qualities.
• Are exposed to real-life adult leaders who share their successes and failures.
• Are involved in creative and cooperative problem-solving activities.
• Develop a plan of action for their school and implement the plan during the school year.
• Share their experiences with other student leaders at a follow-up workshop and evaluate their successes and failures.

The program begins every fall with an overnight camping trip at Sugar Creek Bible Camp (no religious activities are included). There, students work on organized problem-solving activities, meet with community leaders, participate in a ropes leadership course, and share ideas on how to improve their schools and communities.

After returning to their schools, the students develop an action plan. At the end of the school year, the students again get together to share their experiences. They also participate in a confidence course at Fort McCoy, in cooperation with the 732nd Maintenance Battalion.

About 100 8th-graders participate in the program, but their projects involve and affect many more students. The participating districts are Bangor, Cashton, DeSoto, Elroy-Kendall-Wilton, Hillsboro, Kickapoo, LaFarge, Mauston, Norwalk-Ontario, Sparta, Tomah, Viroqua, Westby, and Wonewoc-Union Center.

"Throughout the program, students are learning and growing as they experience the rigors of carrying out a mission," Zahrte said. "As they complete their mission, a whole new population benefits from their leadership development."