September
26, 2003
Teens
to Take the Lead at Mount Holyoke Conference
Forty high school
juniors from across the country will converge on campus for an
intensive four-day teen leadership conference that gives girls
tools to turn ideas for social change into action. Each participant
will be paired with a Mount Holyoke student mentor in the fourth
annual Take the Lead conference October 2-5.
The program of lectures,
workshops, brainstorming, and nurturing helps each girl develop
a detailed plan to effect positive change in her school, community,
or the world at large. "We wanted to create a program in which,
at an early age, girls realize they can make their voices count
in the world," said program chair Patricia VandenBerg, the College's
executive director of communications and strategic initiatives.
"Participants come
to see that they are in a very powerful position because, not
in spite, of their youth," VandenBerg said. "It is nearly impossible
for adults to say no to articulate, passionate young people who
want help with a meaningful cause." The girls, selected from a
pool of 400 applicants, are chosen on the basis of their potential
for leadership and making a difference, as demonstrated by their
academic, extracurricular, and community involvement, as well
as insight and motivation.
VandenBerg said that
this year the program has arrived at a very rewarding point because
it's "coming full circle." One of the 1999 participants, Wilson
Sherwin, is now a Mount Holyoke sophomore and will be a mentor
this year.
"I wouldn't be at
Mount Holyoke if it wasn't for Take the Lead," said Sherwin. "It
completely changed my perception of what I should be looking for
in a school. The mentors were so smart and dedicated . . . but
they were cool women having fun, not locked in a closet reading."
Nina Akerley '04
will be a mentor for the second year in a row. A psychology major
with a minor in complex organizations, Akerley was determined
not to miss the mentoring application deadline last spring --
from across the world in Australia, where she studied at the University
of Sydney. "It's one of my favorite programs at Mount Holyoke,
one of the things I was most looking forward to coming back to,"
Akerley said.
Once selected, a
mentor trains for her role of coach and consultant at the College's
Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts and is matched
with one of the participants. "Project goals, general interests,
and background are some of the factors we consider when creating
a compatible pair," said VandenBerg. For example, Akerley, a former
captain of Mount Holyoke's dressage team, was matched last year
with Deirdre Heiss, who was interested in doing a project related
to an underfunded equestrian center serving mentally and physically
challenged adults. "I had been involved in something similar in
high school, so I felt immediately motivated to help her with
her action project," Akerley said.
Heiss said her nervousness
about coming up with a viable project plan dissipated when she
learned that she had been paired with Akerley. "I was so relieved
that she had had some experience with therapeutic riding," Heiss
said. "As soon as we met we had so much to talk about."
Over the long weekend
that included introducing Heiss to Mount Holyoke traditions old
and new -- M & Cs, as well as the Thursday evening ER viewing
-- Akerley and Heiss put together a comprehensive plan for the
equestrian project. "By the end of the weekend, every step was
nailed out for obtaining funding and increasing program awareness
among the public," said Akerley. "We'd even managed to put together
letters requesting financial donations and equipment, as well
as brochures and poster designs."
Sherwin recalls less
of the details of her 1999 project (related to reproductive rights
and education for women -- a cause to which she remains passionately
committed) and more about hanging out with her mentor and friends,
sleeping in her tiny basement room at MacGregor, and going to
parties on campus. She hopes to be linked with a student like
herself, someone whose attitude toward attending a women's college
could radically change after a weekend with women who value and
enjoy "the Mount Holyoke experience."
For Akerley, the
environment is "electric," particularly in workshops where the
group dynamic helps reinforce the sense that "with creativity
and determination women can do anything." Topics include fundraising/budgeting,
conflict resolution, time management, community organizing, and
publicity. Heiss found that having a choice of workshops that
addressed the diversity of the projects "was one of the best aspects
of the conference. I was able to select one focused on funding
and advertising, just what I needed."
When she was a participant,
the diversity of the projects impressed Sherwin as much as some
of the projects themselves. "I recall being blown away by a girl
with a project to desegregate a New Orleans school," she said.
"Then there'd be someone with what at first struck me as petty.
The difference in magnitude of the projects was enormous, but
I came to realize that's how the world works and we need that
-- people with huge vision and people with a smaller focus."
As a mentor, Akerley
was impressed not only by the diversity of the projects, but by
the diversity of the girls and how they moved beyond differences
and quickly bonded. Despite the wide range of backgrounds, interests,
and goals, the participants all struck her as "motivated, inspired,
confident, and outgoing." One was physically handicapped. "Nobody
realized until the last day when she pointed it out," Akerley
said. "Nobody saw past her personality, which was so warm and
powerful that you literally didn't see the rest."
Each participant
gets a chance to have a one-on-one session with a Speaking, Arguing,
and Writing Program mentor from the Weissman Center.
Mentors keep in touch
with their participants, generally through email, over the six
months following the conference, offering advice and encouragement
when appropriate. Sherwin's mentor remained in contact throughout
the project and after -- when Sherwin began the college application
process. "I loved my mentor," she said. "She's why I'm here. She
showed me the values and culture of Mount Holyoke."
If Sherwin found
the mentors inspiring, the mentors in turn find the participants
inspiring. "It's incredible to be with these girls, to see their
enthusiasm and what they can accomplish," Akerley said. "It's
humbling. When the girls left, the other mentors and I just turned
to each other and said 'OK, now what do we do?'
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