PROGRAM'S GOAL: NUTURING STUDENT LEADERS

What a great opportunity the new Student Leadership Academy offers Cape Girardeau's high school students.

The new program's goal is to identify 25 student leaders from Central High School and Notre Dame High School and give them the skills needed to meet their full potential. It's a junior version of the Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Cape program for adults.

The students in this first class will shape the program for those who follow.

Certainly, the concept worked for their elders. Leadership Cape began in 1986 as an effort to identify and motivate emerging leaders into developing their potential. During the eight-month sessions, the groups conduct meetings that focus on team building and leadership, city services, special public and private services, health services, education, law enforcement, regional economy and the media.

Participants in Leadership Cape have emerged from the experience gushing about the opportunity to understand their communities better, putting them in an ideal frame of mind to be exceptional leaders.

Surely participants in the Student Leadership Academy will say the same.