STARS Youth Leadership Conference

Last week was the annual STARS Youth Leadership Conference (Students Taking Action Reaching for Success). I have mentioned this conference before, and for good reason – it was/is an amazing time. I had been hearing about STARS since my arrival in Ghana last year, and the time finally came to participate. It is held every May in Kumasi (at least to my knowledge) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

STARS is a five day conference that focuses on youth leadership, empowerment, and capacity building in regards to issues faced by youths in Ghana.  Each day is organized into a basic theme: youth leadership, health and HIV/AIDS, goal setting and tertiary education, individual interests, and community service. PCVs submit an application to two bring students, a boy and a girl, from their local senior high school, and the conference ends up hosting about 60 SHS students from all over Ghana. To qualify the students must be in Form 2, which is equivalent to sophomore year, and demonstrate an eagerness to improve and strengthen their academic and personal skill sets. One of the many goals of the conference is to help shape these students into peer educators and role models for their respective schools. They are the future leaders of Ghana and STARS aims to help them on their way.

Once at the conference, the students are split into six groups of about ten students. Students from the same school are not in the same group, which allows the students to meet students from different areas of Ghana and step out of their comfort zone. For each group of students, there are two group leaders, a Junior Group Leader, and a Mentor. PCVs are Group Leaders and are chosen through an application process. I was lucky enough to be one! More on that subject soon. Junior Group Leaders are students who have previously attended the conference and can act as a role model and a liason for Group Leaders. Mentors are students attending KNUST and represent different educational departments.

Like I said, I was a Group Leader, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was partnered with another PCV from my training group, and many other leaders were actually part of my training group. So in addition to fulfilling our duties as Group Leaders it was nice to see some friends and colleagues I have not seen in a while. Group Leaders are responsible for the students in their respective groups to make sure sessions run smoothly and there is no confusion about anything. It is like what I imagine a camp counselor would be. When sessions broke out into smaller groups, we stayed with our group and helped facilitate. It was a very rewarding experience. I really got to know my students and had a wonderful time with them. We ate all our meals together and they even helped to improve my Azonto skills during free time (Azonto is a new hip dance sweeping the nation…youtube it. Each team has a team name and our students chose “LOT: Leaders of Tomorrow.”

The first day was arrival, getting to know our groups, and dinner, followed by a welcome ceremony and cultural dance from the PCVs. We showed the students how to dance the Macarena and it proved to be quite a success. Lots of cheering and clapping, so I guess we did a good job.

The second day we got down to business. The theme of the day was “Learning to be a Leader.” We focused on team building exercises, filled out a personal contract and created a set of rules, discussed different African leaders, leadership and life skills, habits of effective leaders, study skills, and peer pressure. It was a very busy day to say the least. Before sessions ended we played a Jeopardy style quiz game, which turned out to be a lot of fun. I even found some of the questions difficult to answer, but I suppose if I was in school still learning about those subjects I might know the answer. The students really enjoyed themselves though, and that’s what counts. After dinner we showed them an episode of Planet Earth, however I think the PCVs enjoyed it more than the students did. Some of the were passed out on tables, so I guess they were exhausted!

Day three focused on health issues such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. A lady who is HIV positive came to speak to the students about her experience living with HIV, as well as the stigma involved. It was a very powerful session, and I learned a lot from listening to her. She was so strong and positive, which is not always the case here in Ghana for someone living with HIV/AIDS. The students asked her a lot of questions and I think the session was a success and I hope it happens next year. Some PCVs not participating in the conference came to talk about malaria in the afternoon. This is always a good idea because malaria is so prevalent in Ghana that people need to learn about it so they can learn how to better protect themselves and their family.

The fourth day was more interactive. Students branched into different groups and went on tours of the different academic departments at KNUST. They could choose between Math, Engineering, Art, Medical, Agriculture, and I don’t remember the last few. After lunch they worked on more goal setting.

Day five started off with some basic CPR demonstration and was followed by hodge-podge learning. For this session the students broke into small groups and were able to learn a new skill presented by the PCVS. They could choose from things like self-defense, juggling, paper airplane making, drama club, and computer lab skills. In the evening we had the talent show, which is always a fun event. We had some rappers, singers, dancers, joke telling, and much more.

The last day was community service day. Students broke into three groups depending on what community service activity they would be doing. They could choose from Green Up Ghana, peer education, or a living billboard. The first choice dealt with trash pickup and recycling around KNUST campus. The peer education group went to a neighboring PCVs site to teach about HIV/AIDs to some of the JHS students. The living billboard was what is sounds like. Each student had a poster that on one side was part of a long group message, and the other side was a personal note. When the students all stood together their signs spelled out “We are the Future, We are Ghana.” On the back students were supposed to write something personal about themselves or about Ghana or anything, so when they flipped the signs passers by could read different messages from students. For example, some said, “together we build Ghana,” “I will change for the better,” “I like running,” and “Learning well to become a pharmacist.” It was a great event. I was part of the living billboard group so that’s why I have more to say. Regardless though, all three activities were great choices.

That brought the conference to an end and the next day everyone traveled home. It was truly an amazing and rewarding experience. I am so glad that I participated in it and my students seemed to really enjoy themselves. I am excited to meet with my SHS students who attended so that we can plan out sessions and activities for our local SHS.

That’s all for now folks!