Greyhounds attend MYLead

Written by: Carly Darrow '12

          Michigan Youth Leadership conference, or MYLead for short, is a non-profit organization that does its best to instill leadership skills in Michigan’s youth today. Eaton Rapids High School has now participated in this program for 5 years.

            MYLead takes part over three days; students arrive on May 13^th in the early morning, and depart on May 15^th Sunday evening. MYLead includes over 400 high school sophomores from Michigan that come to the MSU campus for a weekend of life lessons that they won’t soon forget.

Past participants have been Lizzie Masteller ’10, Heather Lauck ’11, and Carly Darrow ’12; and attending MYLead this year will be Jessica Allen ’13.

Upon arriving at MYLead students walk to the dorm that they will be staying at for the weekend and are welcomed by MYLead alumni and Group Facilitators who are outstandingly exuberant. It comes as a very big surprise to some conference attendees as the staff comes running up screaming with noise makers. At MYLead, that’s what you would call a proper welcome.

One thing that kids learn at MYLead right away is using the word “stupendous!”  to answer any questions about how you are doing. All other answers are not accepted by the staff because they try to keep a positive attitude throughout the whole weekend. As well as being exceptionally animated, those attending MYLead sing songs throughout the conference when waiting for a speaker to arrive or taking breaks. To some it may seem childish, but at MYLead it’s hard not to participate in the catchy camp-like songs.

This is not a place for the shy or soft spoken. MYLead’s main mission is developing future leaders. Participants also have the opportunity to interact an exchange dialogue with community and civic leaders throughout Michigan.

“I’m really excited to attend the conference and I hope to learn how to be a better leader,” says Jessica Allen ’13 who will be attending MYLead this year. “I’m planning on having a lot of fun and I want to meet new people and establish new friendships.”

MYLead is an experience that will not be soon forgotten, those 3 days spent on MSU builds the best of friendships and has and extremely positive impact on the sophomores that attend it. MYLead is motivating and enabling the youth of Michigan to make a positive impact on their communities through their leadership and service.