Start Youth leaders learn life skills by Stephanie Gibson Dianna Hill reads the story of the three little pigs to a small audience. Her voice is lively and her face animated as she relates a new version of the story to her peers. The story she reads to the class is not meant as a joke, nor is it designed for a group of fidgeting pre-schoolers. Hill is a senior at Brookwood High School in Gwinnett County, north of Atlanta, and the 10 audience members are actually senior classmates. The book is meant to teach the class to see things from other s perspectives, teacher Jackie McLean explains.
Students develop leadership skills that they then apply to service projects.
Dr. Susan Taylor, lead faculty member of the project at the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership and Area Development when the program was developed, says the principal of Elbert County Comprehensive High School approached the institute with the idea of a leadership class after he participated in a leadership development program. Taylor conducted research to find out what existed in the way of high-school curricula, decided a leadership class was needed and developed its curriculum. The pilot class at Elbert County in 1995 was taught by Susan Fricks, a school counselor and former teacher. Leadership classes have been taught at several high schools across the state, including Commerce, Loganville and Banks County High School in Homer. As the student body president of Brookwood High School, Dianna Hill thinks the YLIA class helped her to perform some of her duties as an elected officer of the school.