Youth Community Development Team Committee Report

April 14, 2009

Though the morning dawned drizzly and cold, the bright warmth and enthusiasm of YCDT students filled the conference room at the Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce.  Una Martone, President of Leadership Harrisburg and Karen Snider, YCDT Chair launched the morning program with announcements.  After a review many opportunities for students from Rotary Scholarship to the Rotary Leadership Conference they reminded students that we would like more applications for the 2009-2010 class.  The process for review of applications will begin with the forty five applications currently in hand but the opportunity for leadership development is still open!  The class introduction continued with sharing of student achievement.  From a winner of a statewide impromptu speaking contest, to a Rotary Student of the month to a $20,000 college scholarship, the YCDT students demonstrated their activities are a commitment to excellence.

Wendell Murray of Barrack Inc. moved the class from announcements to learning with an exercise in understanding how teamwork improves performance.  Moving from a fast paced number hunt activity as individuals, to working as a team, the students discovered that a "cluster of turtles can outperform a single hare!"  From cooperation to collaboration, Mr. Murray also assisted Kirk Hallet with the Joshua Group in leading a group discussion on ways the students can be involved in their higher education achievement project - particularly at schools with low graduation rates.

The Joshua Group will implement the project developed by the young leaders to reach at risk students and help them work towards a higher education.   The YCDT students shared the attitudes of those who are not achieving at their schools and the challenges they face in their lives.  A lack of adult support, no help in failing classes, too many opportunities to belong to the "wrong" crowd and not enough "right" clubs all were shared during the discussion.  The students cited respected leaders who mentor and coach students like the late principal at Harrisburg High School as a key influence on student and school performance.  "Instead of lending a hand down, she was lending a hand up," was shared by one student when asked how she affected the culture of the school.   Joshua Group listened to the students on challenges in underperforming schools and offered opportunities for participation in making change - one student at a time.

As the students wrapped up their discussion on the influences that Joshua Group could bring to struggling youth through their project, the class transitioned to a discussion on the key habits for school and life success.  Jeannette Archer-Simons shared a personal story of her experiences in an inner city high school in Iowa.  Her key influence was Girl Scouts which kept her on the right road to completing her education and contributing through work and service.  She presented an exercise for the class to review the lessons learned from the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens" book by Sean Covey.  In seven teams, the students took over leading their own learning experience as each team made a presentation on the qualities of each habit that teens should practice, how the habit was used by the YCDT class to achieve learning and the project selection and what advice these young leaders had on the habits for the next YCDT class and the Joshua group in their implementation of the education project.  Comments included; "when you set a goal, put yourself in the picture as achieving that goal," and "YCDT applied the principals of being proactive by giving us a positive look on things, showing us that we do have an impact on change and can help others as well as ourselves" or "listen to people first, then they will listen to you," and "think win win - it is contagious!"   These young leaders have added to their individual foundations for personal effectiveness through the eight learning sessions offered by the Harrisburg Rotary and the YCDT volunteer committee.  And as a team, they have demonstrated a powerful spirit of community service and making a difference.

The class wrapped up all too quickly with pizza, salad and announcements. The final class and graduation will be held on May 12, 2009 from 11:00AM to 1:00AM in the conference room at the Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce.  If you are inspired by the work of these young leaders there is still time to contribute to the funding needs for their project, which has raised just over half of their $6,000 goal.  Please contact Karen Snider, Chair at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information about giving to their educational project for at risk students in Harrisburg.