Learning about leadership

January 25, 2008

By Linda Conner Lambeck

Teresa Hickman, a senior at Harding High School in Bridgeport, knows about rumors.

She's been on the starting end of several. Another, which was told about her, has haunted her since the eighth grade, the 17-year-old admitted to a room full of students from Bridgeport and Fairfield. They were attending a Martin Luther King Youth Leadership Workshop on Friday at Fairfield University.

"The outcome was not good. I felt bad to this day," she said.

The program, in its 10th year, was designed to convince students to stop rumors, say no to fights and become leaders in their schools.

"You took the first step by being here," said Rony Delva, a program coordinator for the university's Institutional Diversity Initiative.

Larri Mazon, director of Multicultural Relations at the university, called the program "one of the most important activities we do."

The workshop, "Attaining Peace and Justice through Leadership," drew middle and high school students from Bridgeport schools, including Curiale, Classical Studies Academy, Bassick, Harding, Roosevelt, Beardsley and Longfellow. Students from Tomlinson Middle School in Fairfield also attended; their school is so close to the university they walked to the event.

"It's great to do something with Bridgeport," said Kathy Niznanski, a Tomlinson teacher. "We need to do more."

Barbara Charles, a teacher at Longfellow School, said many of her students can't imagine themselves as leaders. Programs like this help them consider the possibility of what they can do to make problems better.

The students discussed whether violence has ever solved problems.

Students from Tomlinson said it took a Civil War to bring about the end of slavery.

Bridgeport students said it's hard to walk away from someone who wants to fight.

Grabbing the microphone, Jasmin Jean-Louis, 12, a seventh- grader at Curiale, asked for a show of hands by those who have been bullied. Nearly all hands rose.

"People feel bad about themselves. If they make fun of someone else, it takes attention off them," added Pamela Rodriguez, a Curiale eighth-grader.

Lisa Andrews, a teacher at Classical Studies Academy, told students that teachers can be an important ally if they find the ones "that have their backs."

"Tell me. I too was bullied. A lot of us have experienced same thing.," she said.

One workshop exercise had participants play the telephone game, where a phrase was whispered from ear to ear around nine separate circles.

The phrase: "All Jewish People Are Cheap," shocked some participants so much, they purposely changed the messages before passing it on. Others called it "messed up" and mean.

"People fought just so those things didn't have to be said any more," said Anthony Whitaker, a Harding senior.

Frankie Coteron, 12, a Beardsley sixth-grader, said the words weren't only mean, they hurt.

"I'm Jewish," he said.

Akima Begum, 14, a Curiale seventh-grader, said she dislikes the superficial assumptions that some people make - categorizing someone as bad because he or she is same race or religion as someone they know who is bad.

"They judge them before they even know them. I don't like that. That's just me," she said.

Reprinted with permission from the Connecticut Post