Santa Maria Valley has some new leaders in the community. On June 21, a total of 27 local high school students graduated from the second Teen Leadership Santa Maria Valley class, which is run by several local organizations and teaches participants about important valley issues, as well as leadership skills.
Graduating class members came from the valley’s public, private, charter, and home school programs, and included Daniel Bartlett, Casandra Bishop, Sebastian Cifuentes, Desiree Coles, David DeLaGarza, Sayra Duran, Willie Estrada, Sadie Fulp, Alexander George, Rachael Jackson, Nathan Jordan, Alice Jun, Aya Kasai, Teresa Luna, Rachel Macadam, Francesca Medina, Frankie McCormack, Sensika Niyathapala, Daisy Paniagua, Nicholas Paramoure, Keyona Richey, Giovanna Rodriguez, Sydney Santana, Delia Sierra, Aaron Stewart, Rochelle Vertrees, and Shawna Weston.
This year’s class began in September 2009 with a weekend team-building retreat at Cal Poly’s Chumash Challenge Ropes Course. Monthly topic days focused on subjects such as health and human services, education and careers, law and government, economics and media, diversity and ethics, energy and environment, and military and aerospace. Each topic day featured discussions with local elected officials and other experts, as well as leadership and citizenship training.
Nearly 100 members of the community attended the graduation celebration on June 21, and Santa Maria City Council Member Alice Patino and Santa Maria Airport Board Member Hugh Rafferty presented the certificates.
Teen Leadership Santa Maria Valley is a program of the United Way, the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce, Red Cross of Northern Santa Barbara County, and the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District. It’s a youth-oriented version of the adult Leadership Santa Maria Valley Program, founded by Cary Gray and Jim Simmons in 1995.
In a release to the media, Gray said he started the Teen Leadership Program “because our students are one of the most important capital investments we can make in the future prosperity and quality of life of our beloved Santa Maria Valley.”
Any valley teen who will be a sophomore, junior, or senior during the 2010-2011 school year is eligible to apply for the teen program. Applications are currently being accepted for both the Adult Leadership program and the Teen Leadership program. The adult program starts with a weekend retreat in late August, and the teen program begins with a weekend retreat in late September.
Applications for both programs are available at the Chamber of Commerce, the United Way office, or at the program
website: LSMV.org.
Program directors are also looking for individuals, corporations, and service clubs interested in funding scholarships or sponsoring topic days. To make a tax-deductible donation, call the United Way at 922-0329.
School Scene is compiled by News Editor Amy Asman. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, e-mail, or mail.
This article appears in Jul 8-15, 2010.