Forty-seven students from throughout Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s County arrived at LEAD camp on Sunday, June 24, with enthusiasm for the journey they were about to undertake. For the third year, LEAD offered a chance for the region’s teens to develop their communication, teamwork and leadership skills, enabling them to carry those lessons forward into their schools, their communities and beyond.
The camp is a four-day, three-night residential and experiential learning opportunity offered by Leadership Southern Maryland (LSM) and the Maryland Leadership Workshops (MLW), held at the scenic St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
In many ways, the LEAD camp draws from the same principles as the prestigious LSM, an independent non-profit which offers a nine-month leadership development program in the tri-county area. But instead of executives, the camp is geared specifically toward 10th, 11th and 12th grade students, enabling them to learn what leadership really is and gain a heightened awareness of the critical issues affecting these neighboring counties.
The camp is professionally run and staffed by a diverse group of young professionals from MLW. These counselors not only instruct the LEAD delegates through a series of workshops and activities, but they also develop a rapport with the teenagers and help them see just how far their newly-acquired skills can take them.
Kori Jones has participated in MLW programs for seven years and is currently a program manager for Howard County’s Department of Recreation and Parks. He said the transformation in these delegates in a short period of time is intense, adding it’s a rewarding experience to witness that growth.
Sterling Grimes, an eighth year staffer, is currently a teacher in Philadelphia. Calling himself “ancient” at age 23, he said he and the other counselors are able to relate to the delegates. “We try to bring in a good level of rigor,” Grimes said. “These kids can take the skills they gain here and use them everywhere … these professional concepts won’t be foreign to them and they’ll go out and be ahead of the pack.”
This year’s participants came from diverse backgrounds, with varying interests from sports to music to student government and engineering. That diversity was instrumental in allowing the delegates to better understand the perspectives of others and, eventually, they found plenty of common threads.
This year, thanks to the generosity of business and community sponsors, 15, or 32 percent were able to receive full or partial scholarships to attend the camp.
The delegates to
