Rotary District 6890, which serves Hillsborough, Highlands, Hardee and Polk counties, is hosting a leadership skills and training seminar for youth in the Tampa Bay region.
The program is modeled after the
Rotary’s Seminar for Tomorrow’s Leaders (S4TL) program, which provides a week-long leadership experience for high school juniors and seniors. For the last 30 years, the retreat has brought together 160 students each year to Florida Southern College in Lakeland for an intensive leadership development experience. After the success of this program, the Rotary decided to expand the concept in an effort to reach more students.
Life Prep is a half day leadership skills seminar developed in partnership with local colleges and universities. The event will take place November 15 at
Keiser University in Tampa. High school juniors and seniors are invited to attend.
The free, interactive event will focus on leadership and college readiness. Students will work together in groups to learn what it takes to be a successful leader, how to achieve their dreams and how to find scholarships for college.
In an effort to further its mission of uniting leaders who then take action to help their communities, Rotary clubs host Interact clubs in local high schools, which is a high school version of Rotary. Rotarians noticed that students need leadership skills in order to be able to convince more people to become service-minded.
"We have the ability to help people learn more about being leaders," says Gary Gunter, Governor of Rotary District 6890. "It’s a natural thing once you’ve brought together all these leaders to help other people, especially young people, develop themselves so they can have a good career and a good future."
The Rotary plans to continue the Life Prep event on more college campuses after the pilot. "Hopefully this will grow into something that will help young people be better students, better leaders, and think more about their future, which helps everybody," says Gunter.
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