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CedarBridge Academy students conquer their fears at US conference

Eight representatives of Bermuda’s youth have returned from a conference that could change the face of their country.

Students from CedarBridge Academy left on June 12 for a youth leadership conference in Washington DC. Scott Kennedy, Jasmine Whitehurst, Neville Vanderpool, Sophie Thapa, Seannika Smith, Zaid Simmons, Sanae Russell, and Derek Musson returned to the Island on June 18 from the Lead-America Youth Leadership Conference.

The students, who are members of the Lead-Bermuda Leadership Club, participate in weekly meetings in which they learn exactly what leadership is and how to develop leadership skills.

The conference, which set out to do the same, was held on campus at Gallaudet University. It offered daily activities aimed at demonstrating leadership skills that can be applied to real life situations.

The students participated in a high ropes course, much like the one on Paget Island. Students are harnessed and climb the height of a telephone pole to walk across ropes strung tightly from one pole to the next.

The activity is meant to build trust. The students said they met a girl who had been saying the whole week that she wouldn’t do the ropes course because of her fear of heights. By the end of the week, when it came time for the activity, that very same girl was the first up the course.

“At the conference we spoke about and learned about the different aspects of leadership and realised for ourselves what it was,” said Mr. Kennedy.

All the students agreed that the conference was worthwhile. One student explained: “At the beginning of the week, we were split up into groups. At lunches we would eat with the people that we were debriefed with. By the end of the week the whole group was eating lunch together.”

When asked if going to the conference changed their ideas of what they wanted to do with their lives, Miss Thapa simply said: “I’ve always wanted to be a medical missionary and going to this conference just reaffirmed that.”

These students know what they want and they are going after it. Every student had something to share from international karate competitions, to being an “information technology mastermind”, to being in charge of the culinary side of an up and coming business.