GATES Students Attend Leadership Conference At Quinnipiac

By Susan Coney

Three Newtown Middle School students — Steven Rollo, Laura Paik, and Ishan Tatake — took part in a leadership conference held at Quinnipiac University in Hamden on Tuesday, January 10. All three students participate in the GATES (Gifted and Talented Education Services) program at the middle school and attended the conference with their teacher, Patrice Gans.

The conference, offered by the Connecticut Association of Schools in conjunction with the Connecticut Association of Student Councils, is an initiative to train students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in leadership skills. Since its inception 14 years ago almost 5,000 students have participated in the one-day event, which also gives students an opportunity to take workshops, listen to speakers, and meet other young community leaders from around the state.

Led by teachers, administrators, youth officers, high school students, and counselors, students worked  in small groups designed to give middle school students the tools to become effective leaders in their communities. Students participated in workshops designed to increase their skills in building a climate of acceptance, making a difference at school, and learning to take risks.

Ms Gans stated that this year’s conference, titled “Making Acceptance Acceptable,” focused on fostering an accepting environment, learning about community leaders, and providing specific ways that students can exhibit leadership at school.

Ms Gans said, “The leadership conference is made up of two components; the student workshops where the students participate in team building activities with others they didn’t know, and lectures geared to the teachers.” The teacher or advisor portion of the workshop entailed activities to help the educator make all students feel welcome. The advisors workshop was structured as a roundtable discussion and sharing session.

 Speaker William Howe, a consultant in the Office of Educational Equity from the Connecticut Department of Education, gave a presentation to the advisors on how to create a warm, inclusive environment. He was very informative as well as entertaining Ms Gans stated.

Seventh grader Ishan Tatake stated that for the most part the workshop was good because of the hands-on experience. “Overall it was a very good learning experience. I learned not to always assert myself and to sometimes stand back and allow others a chance,” Ishan said.

Laura Paik, also in seventh grade stated, “They made a good attempt to teach alliances, how to get along with others and how to become a leader, but it would have been better if we were in smaller groups.

“I did learn a lot about Ms Gans and the other two people on the drive up and back in the car, and that was good,” she said.

Eighth grader Steven Rollo enjoyed attending the conference. “I wanted to go because I had heard other kids saying that leadership conferences were good and I thought it would be cool to go. It was fun, and really interactive. There were 18 kids in my group and we got to do a lot of fun activities where we had to come up with some creative planning.” Steven continued,  “I thought it was really well coordinated and I would recommend it to others to attend.”

Ms Gans said that she selected the students who attended the conference to provide them with an opportunity to tap into skills they already have and to help give them the confidence they need to use them.