Student Prepares For Prestigious Leadership Conference

Newtown High School junior Sarah Hemingway was recently selected among the participations of the prestigious Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) this July 11–22 in Washington, D.C.

Sarah is the news editor of the Newtown High School newspaper, The Hawkeye. She will be serving as editor-in-chief next fall for the 2004-05 school year.

She is also a member of the varsity swim team, Peer Leadership Council, and community-service organization, the Newtown Rotary-sponsored Interact Club.

She is also a co-chair of the Newtown Youth Services’ Youth Advisory Board.

“I have also been involved in various political campaigns over the past five or six years,” she said. Her father, Joe Hemingway, is a member of Newtown’s Legislative Council.

“I helped with phone calls, mailings, and distributing flyers during election time for First Selectman Herb Rosenthal and Congressman James Maloney,” she said.

Last summer, she said she had a “wonderful experience” at the National Young Leaders Conference (NYLC).

“The simulations, site visits, and nationwide friendships I made are an experience that I thought could never been matched,” she said. “However, when I was invited to the GYLC conference, and heard that students from over 75 other countries would also be attending, I realized that maybe I had found something that would live up to the experience I had last summer!”

This year’s GYLC theme is “The Leaders of Tomorrow Preparing for the Global Challenges and Responsibilities of the Future.” Sarah will interact with key leaders and newsmakers with powerful influence over politics, finance, culture, and diplomacy that will take part in a carefully designed curriculum. This curriculum includes thought-provoking simulations that build leadership skills.

The conference will culminate with the Global Summit, in which students apply what they have learned through the week as they debate, negotiate, and build coalitions addressing issues including foreign aid, global warming, cooperative efforts in space, terrorism, and human rights.

For additional information, visit www.cylc.org.