Young people on the Future Leaders programme have backed the scheme as this year’s group was inducted.

Siniah Lambe, one of the group and from CedarBridge Academy, said: “Unlike school, Future Leaders Bermuda allows you to be way more open about how you feel towards different things. You have a say in something.“

Ms Lambe was speaking at the closing ceremony for the 13 Future Leaders inducted this year.

Kayla McCarthy, also from CedarBridge, said she would “recommend the Future Leaders Programme to anyone who feels like they want to make a change in Bermuda but they don’t know how or where to start”.

McKenzie-Kohl Tuckett, a speaker at the event, told the group to “never limit yourselves because of fear of failure – recognise that some of the greatest lessons are born out of setbacks”.

The group also remembered Eva Hodgson, a teacher writer historian and civil rights campaigner, who died last May.

Dr Hodgson was said to be “a friend of the Future Leaders programme”.

This year’s programme was directed by Seon Tatem, the youth assistant director and who went through the Future Leader programme in 2017.

Mr Tatem returned to help founder Ryan Robinson Perinchief to run this year’s event with Tonisha Key-Holmes as head teacher.

Areas of study in the three-week course included foundations of service, poverty, crime and inequity, identity and privilege and leadership and self determination.

The group also released a video featuring participants and public leaders.

Mr Tatem said in the film: “In being the leader this year it’s been humbling.

“Leadership is not about being the best speaker or the most confident, it’s about realising your potential as an individual.”

David Burt, the Premier, also attended the event, held at the Berkeley Institute last Friday.

Karen Grissette, the US Consul General, said she had met “incredibly promising young participants”.

She added: “In countries I have lived in around the world, programmes like this really do identify, and sometimes create, the leaders of tomorrow.”

The programme was designed to build leaders and help give them the skills to make a difference in Bermuda and overseas.

It offers participants the experience and leadership skills they need to make a difference.

This year’s group also included India Bascome and Xavier Ramsay of Warwick Academy, Preston Ephraim III of Dellwood Middle School, Zamauri Hardtman and Chyne Martin of CedarBridge Academy, A’Mya Harvey, Jaelan Jones and AJ Smith of the Berkeley Institute, Faskia Simons of Bermuda High School, Meron Simons of Saltus Grammar School and Sari Smith who is home-schooled.

For more information and to support the programme, visit www.futureleaders.bm or e-mail info@futureleaders.bm.