CAPE SETS LEADER TRAINING FOR TEENS

Training new leaders for Cape Girardeau will soon start with students at the city's public and parochial schools.

The Cape Girardeau Student Leadership Academy will begin its first class this fall. The course will be open to 20 juniors from public and parochial schools.

The format will be similar to the Leadership Cape program developed by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce. That program helps identify young leaders and offers them training so they can develop their skills.

A retreat is planned for October to kickoff the student program. Students will be invited to a campground near Fredericktown, Mo., for a weekend seminar on leadership models with practical exercises.

The retreat will include an outdoor team-building, confidence course activity.

All the seminar training helps the students learn about personality types and gives them a better understanding of "why some need to be leaders and some need to be followers," said Cape Girardeau Police Chief Rick Hetzel, a member of the student leadership steering committee.

When the students head to the low-ropes course, they can easily put those lessons to use, he said.

The students learn about planning, developing good strategies, "and all the things good leaders need to do," he said.

But the program won't just be about what adult leaders think students need to know, Hetzel said. Students will submit ideas for the remaining training sessions.

"They develop the concepts for the programs," he said.

Hetzel worked with a similar program in Norcross, Ga., that involved all 13 public schools in the county. Students in that program wanted to learn more about technology, environmental issues and health care.

Members of the Leadership Cape alumni association will be invited to help prepare the programs and seminars for the students.

A student program seemed "a natural tie-in with Leadership Cape," Hetzel said.

Because the program begins with students as juniors, there is the option of a group project during their senior year of high school. A continuing program hasn't been structured yet, Hetzel said.

"We need to determine what they want to do if they come back as alumni," he said.

Students interested in participating in the leadership academy will be required to complete an application. Information will be available through guidance counselors and faculty at the schools.