EGLP prepares young leaders of the region
By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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Craig Wright, Coordinator of International Student Programmes York University
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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – OVER 60 students from eight Caribbean countries were exposed to a variety of perspectives, theories and activities that explored the breadth of leadership during the Emerging Global Leaders Programme (EGLP), held from October 17-20 at the Royal St. Kitts Marriott Resort.
The Programme, geared toward promoting positive leadership training, drew participants aged 14-18 years from St. Kitts-Nevis, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos, British Virgin Islands, St. Maarten, Antigua-Barbuda, Anguilla and Guyana.
Craig Wright, Coordinator of International Student Programmes York University, explained that the programme’s main objective is to get participants to engage in critical thinking about leadership.
“By bringing people who are recognized experts in their field to give participants an opportunity to interact with a very diverse group of people, would allow them to essentially encourage students to learn on their own.
“We want them to come away with the information that is provided; identifying the areas that are specifically relevant to them as young leaders. The key component of this programme is that at the end of it they are going to get up and do something.
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Cross-section of participants
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“This programme has evolved; it changes constantly, every year. When we first began running the programme here in St. Kitts, it was a two-day programme during which we ran evaluations. At the end of each day, based on the information that they [the participants] provide us, we worked to change the programme the following day to incorporate their suggestions.
At the end of each programme, we run a summative evaluation which is geared toward the running of the programme itself; we take the suggestions and make radical changes to the following year’s programme.”
Wright informed that a key element of the programme is allowing representing students to identify issues in their own communities in their respective countries that they would like to impact.
He mentioned that participants work through a resource manual so that at the end of the programme, “they come out with a step-by-step project management plan that they would then take away and implement in their own communities”.
He informed that this year’s focus was placed on local and community leadership, and personal management, projecting that next year’s focus would be on island and regional development and then on global development.
Coordinator Wright informed that social projects that were birthed by alum of the Programme are causing social change in Jamaica,Barbados and Dominica, where students are taking away leadership skills to initiate projects relevant to their local situations.
Wright stated, “The response of the students has been amazing.
They are having a great time. The thing that I love most is that I can actually see a change in behaviour of some of the participants from day one of the four days. Just four days of investment in the students and they are coming away with confidence; motivated to initiate change in their respective communities.”
