Junior program developing leadership skills in youth – Rapid City, South Dakota | News, Weather and Sports

RAPID CITY, S.D. — Building leadership skills in the next generation is the goal of a youth program just in its third year.

On Wednesday,the Junior Elevate Leadership Institute was held at the Monument in Rapid City.

Hosted by Elevate Rapid City Leadership Institute graduates, the program focused on leadership and management training for 25 Rapid City School District eighth graders.

The Junior Elevate Leadership Institute was developed by Elevate Leadership Institute graduates three years ago.

During the junior leadership event, several graduates from the 9-month long Elevate leadership program share with students lessons and life skills they have learned themselves.

“So hopefully each of them takes one small thing away from this, and, you know, building some confidence in them, like just bringing kids who might not think of themselves as a leader to something like this. Now we’ve kind of, we’ve kind of shown them, Hey, you are a leader. Your school sees you as a leader. And maybe it spurs something in them, you know, some confidence that maybe they didn’t have before,” Rapid City Police Department Lt. Tim Doyle said.

Twenty-five eighth grade students – five from each middle school in the Rapid City School District – were nominated by their teachers to attend the day of learning.

Students selected were either leaders or had qualities of leadership.

During the day, students heard about communication skills, community ownership, spoke with the Rush coach, learned about decision making and toured the Monument.

“I hope to take away communication skills and skills I’ve already learned. I hope to strengthen those. It’s important because it will show me how to be a leader. It will show me skills I can use in life and in jobs, schools, sports, etc, and it will probably also help me with, like my family and how I communicate with them,” said Aaron Phoenix, eighth grade, Southwest Middle School.

The junior leadership program was started to develop leadership skills in eighth graders before they moved on to high school – providing a foundation for student leadership roles.

“And the idea was to take our current ELI alum and have them come and teach this to our eighth graders and really give them an opportunity to see what they can impact in their own community, and build those leadership and management skills early so as they grow throughout high school, they can implement that,” Bailey Sadowsky, Elevate Leadership Institute Program Director said.

Jerry Steinley has lived in the Black Hills most of his life and calls Rapid City home. He received a degree in Journalism with a minor in Political Science from Metropolitan State University in Denver in 1994.