YOUTH LEADERSHIP DOES BULLETIN BOARD

Special thanks to the Youth Leadership students who came out Saturday, March 5th to design a bulletin board for the Bainbridge College New Continuing Education Building. 

The theme is "WE ARE WILD ABOUT CONTINUING ED!  The students were Kelly Brooks, Megan Brock, Stephanie Mills, Caylin Walshingham, Bailey Bristow, Caroline New, Clint Edmunds, Gabby Howard and Cassandra Henry.  The students receive two hours towards their community service hours.  WAY TO GO!

THE PRINCE OF PASTA

Jim Gisondi, self acclaimed Prince of Pasta, taught the Youth Leadership Class on Entrepreneurship.  Mr. Jim and his wife, Ms. Linda shared their story about owning an Italian restuarant.  While Mr. Jim took great pride in having his own business, he also said he worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to make sure his restuarant was the best.  He said that a lot of hard work goes into running your own business.  He also stated that it was important to have a business plan and gave even more issues to consider about entrepreneurship, such as TAXES!

As a special treat, Mr. Jim prepared an authentic Italian dish, Fettuccine Carbonara!  Can we say YUM YUM!  Jim Gisondi is an instructor for the Bainbridge College Continuing Education Program.  Sign up for one of his classes, you will be glad you did!

PUBLIC SPEAKING

February 28th the leadership class had the opportunity to learn more public speaking skills with Rev. June Johnson.  Rev. Johnson shared some valuable ways on how to improve your speaking skills.  She spoke about diction, posture, eye contact and how to prepare for speaking engagements.



She also spoke on how members of an audience show behave while listening to a speaker.  She said that preparation and practice are two important elements in public speaking.  Rev. June is also a member of Toastmaster, International which is a public speaking organization. 

TEAM BUILDING



Dr. Suzi Bonifay was the instructor for our February 21st class.  Dr. Bonifay stressed the importance of team building and being a good team player.  She divided the class into groups and told them to list as many teams as they could.  She also shared a video about how geese work together as a team.  Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOBthOPuw2U

The groups were also challenged to build the tallest cell tower using only a set of building tools.

Decatur County Youth Leadership Tours Florida Capitol

Old Florida Capitol



Wednesday, February 23rd, the Youth Leadership Class had the opportunity to tour both the Old  and New Capitol Buildings in Tallahassee, Florida.  Students received a guided tour of the Old Capitol and were able to hear and see the history of  the state of Florida.  A self guided tour of the Florida History Museum was allowed and students were able to explore the state of Florida from pre-historic times to World War II.



While visiting the New Capitol students were permitted to view the Florida House of Representatives and received a special visit from the Sergeant at Arms.  Special thanks to Josh Smith's Aunt Vicky Summerhill for graciously providing the tour and for his cousin Meredith Cannon for taking our photo with Sergeant at Arms Earnest Sumner.



GOAL SETTING AND DECISION MAKING by Sara Margaret Bush

Monday, February 7^th Mrs. Glennie Bench talked with the group about setting goals and making decisions.  She identified several important steps to considers in a decision making process. 

The process included identifying the problem, considering all solutions, evaluate pros and cons, and setting attainable goals.  Mrs. Bench also emphasized the importance of being considerate about others opinions and always listening. 

 The class was split into four groups and given a sample problem. They were asked to use the decision making process to figure out a solution to the problem.  The groups all had creative ideas and came up with helpful solutions.

The class also played a game to emphasize how important teamwork is in reaching a goal.  Each group had to link hands in a circle.  Mrs. Bench put a hula hoop around one person in the group, and asked everyone to make a goal of how long it will take them to move the hula hoop all the way around the circle.  After everyone made a goal, Mrs. Bench timed all of the groups and compared the times to their goals.  After a few tries of this, the class quickly realized it was not as easy as it seemed!

The class learned many important lessons from Mrs. Bench and had a lot of fun.



Industry Tour By Kyle Harris & Sam Slaughter

On Thursday, February 3, the Youth Leadership Class attended a Chamber breakfast at the Charter House Inn, followed by a tour of various industries throughout the Bainbridge area.

To begin the day, a current Steering Committee member received an award for school wide achievement. Tad Young (left pic) received the STAR Student award for Grace Christian. This award is based on SAT Score, and is awarded to the student in each senior class with the highest SAT Test score. For Bainbridge High School, David Golladay (right pic), a Youth Leadership Graduate, won the award. 

After breakfast, the class boarded a bus to begin the tour. Our tour started at Danimer Scientific led by Phil VanTrump. Danimer produces a compostable plastic for use in items such as table ware, film resins, and injection molded materials. We toured their testing location, production floor, and the laboratory. Mr.VanTrump explained the process at Danimer. They produce their compostable plastics using various chemical processes.

Following the walk through of Danimer, we made our way to their sister company Meredian. There we. were greeted by Sean Schuyler who gave us an explanation of the process involved at Meredian, where they use bacteria fed by various oils to produce a truly biodegradable plastic. This plastic is broken down over time by microorganisms in the ground.



 

From Meredian we traveled to Memorial Hospital. Here we took part in a tour of the facilities and a presentation given by Dr. Walker. Dr. Walker gave an overview of the functions of our hospital, followed by a question and answer session. Our tour included the respiratory therapy, women's center, intensive care unit, radiology, surgical department, and laboratory. Upon completing our tour, we enjoyed lunch provided by the hospital cafeteria.



After completing our meal we once again loaded on the bus to go to the new Student Wellness Center at Bainbridge College. We were given a tour by Justin Gravlee. Our tour began with the gymnasium where there is a regulation basketball court set up for college league games. This state-of-the-art gymnasium is equipped with floating floors, much like the gymnasium at the new Bainbridge High School facility. We were then shown the various areas of the new facility including the fully equipped weight & exercise room, game room, food court, book store, aerobics rooms, classrooms, and a computer lab with 50+ computers. We completed our walk through on the upstairs track which is 1/9 of a mile long before boarding the bus for the final time to complete our day back at the Charter House.

Overall the tour was an informative experience that allowed the leadership students to catch a glimpse of the industries and businesses of our community. The students and the steering committee appeared to enjoy the trip, and appreciate the members of the various organizations who assisted us throughout the day.