Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Jun 09/00) - Yellowknife middle school students are leading the way to the future.

Eleven junior high and elementary students from four local schools were invited to meet 10 other students at Range Lake North school to take part in a leadership summit, Tuesday, May 30.

Students From William McDonald, Ecole St. Joseph, Mildred Hall and Weledeh schools were involved in the summit.

"I was interested in an event at the end of the school year to bring together all of our student leadership ideas and activities," said assistant principal for Range Lake North school, Adam Bunin.

"Basically, we wanted to share all that we were doing here with other schools and learn from them."

A student leadership program was initiated last year at the school and was designed to develop leadership skills in students at the grades 5-8 level.

Students receive specific leadership training through an exploratory program of six classes. They then put this training to use, serving in student council, offering office assistance, and lunchtime and canteen supervision.

Experimental exercises

"Through games and experimental exercises, the students learn concepts such as, what is a leader? What qualities does a leader need? What are the responsibilities of a leader? And what are personal, social skills a leader needs to have?" said school counsellor for Range Lake North, Trudy Murray.

"It's really important that they learn that, because very often they're isolated in their schools ... they need opportunities to communicate with others in similar circumstances."

The leadership summit was organized by students from the school, and the duties included: school personnel from each of the other schools had to be contacted; leadership presentations had to be tabled and delivered; the media and schools boards had to be contacted; and additionally, lunch had to be made for the visiting students.

"We're learning about what different schools do for leadership ideas," said Samantha Digness, a student from Range Lake North school.

"We want to see what we can do to improve leadership in this school and other schools."