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.

TEEN MAZE

REMINDER: 

TEEN MAZE IS TONIGHT AT THE COLISEUM STARTING AT 6:00 FOR THE PUBLIC.  PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND.  YOU CAN COUNT THE TIME TOWARDS YOUR COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS. 

Appreciating Differences by Michael Jones

On Monday, January 31, 2011, the Leadership Class attended the Appreciating Differences course at the Continuing Education Building. This week the class was led by Ms. Charlotte Howard.

Ms. Charlotte introduced the course as appreciating different people and their different beliefs in our community. At the beginning she had the class compare and contrast McKenzie and Meredith Conder. The class named many different observations about them, but found it was harder to name the similarities.

Later on during the course, Ms. Charlotte told the story of "Who Moved My Cheese." The characters Hem, Haw, Skip, and Scurry were played Michael, Gabby, Christina  and Blair.  Ms. Diane was the Big Cheese and  Clint was the New Big Cheese. The class learned from the story that if you appreciate the differences of people and accept change then it will cause less trouble and take you further in life.



At the end of the course, the class separated into five different groups, and Ms. Charlotte assigned them to each make a different version of the songs "Happy Birthday", "Row your Boat", or "The Barney Theme" with musical instruments. The groups were very creative and worked very well together.

The class was also given their volunteer hours sheet and were informed more of the Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Thursday February 3, 2011.

The Etiquette Class by Stephen Dunn, Jr.

One of our first leadership classes was an etiquette class taught by Mrs. Marlene Free.  We were given the wonderful opportunity of attending a small gathering at the home of Dean and Marlene Free.  There we learn how to dress appropriately for various social ocassions, as well as, what topics were acceptable to discuss.  We even learned how to properly use a place setting when invited to dinner and how to use the proper utensils when you have to serve yourself.  



Later, we learned how to hold your plate and drink while standing and conversing at the same time. The etiquette class was great, I thoroughly enjoyed being there.  Everyone should know at least some basic etiquette.  This skill can greatly improve your chances of being successful in life.  People are always watching what you do, so allow your everyday actions to be impressive, and learning proper etiquette is one simple way to achieve that goal.

BINGO with the Humane Society by Justin Maxwell

Friday evening, January 28th, I had the privilege of attending the Bingo Night Fund Raiser for the Decatur County Humane Society.  The event was well attended by many members of the community.  Ms. Charlotte was presented a plant and balloon for being selected as the Decatur County Woman of the Year.  Several members of the Decatur County Youth Leadership Class participated in the event as well.  There were many styles of Bingo played during the evening.  Black out, X across, and letters of the alphabet were used to fill the cards in hopes of winning prizes.  Participants enjoyed a hotdog buffet, too.  The proceeds from this event will help with the operating expenses of the animal shelter.