Local students selected for Junior Leadership Orange
“Potential leaders.”
That’s the type of student that the Junior Leadership Orange program (JLO) looks for. This year, seven students from the Highland Falls Intermediate School and one from the Cornwall Central Middle School have been selected to participate in the program.
JLO is a collaboration between the Orange County Youth Bureau and Leadership Orange for exceptional middle school students. Potential leaders are identified in the seventh grade and formal training begins in the eighth grade.
Attending from the HFIS are: Haylee Adams, Christopher Evans, Lauren Farrier, Noemie Florant, Jovana Jackson, Shawn Konyak and Amelia Pushlar. Grace Sandler, an eighth grader at the Cornwall Central Middle School, will also participate.
The program is designed to provide leadership skills, life skills, career exposure and preparedness to youth who will potentially become the business and community leaders of tomorrow.
“JLO effectively engages youth by challenging them to develop skills, gain critical awareness, and act as community advocates,” program information says.
The program serves up to 38 youth from sixteen different school districts in Orange County and operates during the academic school year. Students travel together once a month on a school day to various locations in the county to attend interactive educational presentations. They meet with instructors and facilitators from a variety of sectors in leadership positions across Orange County and receive training in several areas including leadership, education and college readiness, the justice system, public speaking and communication, volunteerism, diversity, fiscal literacy and quality-of-life.
JLO is provided at no cost to participating students and is currently funded by the TD Charitable Foundation and NYS Office of Children and Family Services through the Orange County Youth Bureau.”
“We have never had this many students selected and we are very proud,” HFIS Principal Michael McElduff said this week. He noted that all of the school’s eighth graders were asked to apply to attend. “It is a wonderful program and great opportunity.”
The application for the program is filled out by the students, and requires essay-type answers, as well as support from their parents and two members of their school’s faculty or administration, as well as recommendations.
For more information on the program, visit www.leadershiporange.org/programs#junior_program.
