Youth Retreat is a Weekend You Won’t Forget
By: Katelynn Northam
When I first arrived at the Co-op Youth Leadership Seminar in May of 2006, like any self-respecting high school student, I was cynical about what the weekend would hold. Accustomed to having a variety of inspirational speakers paraded before me, I came to realize that I had become rather skeptical of the concept of a ‘leadership camp’.
After all, what could I really learn in only four days?
Nonetheless, I resolved to remain open-minded. One of my good friends had raved about it, and since the funding was provided by co-ops from around the province, it was free for me to attend.
What fascinated me about the Co-op Youth Leadership Camp was not necessarily the content of the programming, but rather that it made me realize what it meant to truly be taught something. I had certainly sat in the classroom and listened to lectures, but I had never had an experience that showed me how to be a better leader.
The seminars didn’t lecture us, they involved us in activities and group work that demonstrated real life scenarios, putting us in difficult situations and letting us feel our way through them. It revealed for the first time what was important to me as an individual, and what was not. When I left on the fourth day, I realized that I had learned more about myself and my capabilities than I had in years. Not only was I now more aware of who I was, but I was also aware of where I wanted to go, and what kind of person I wanted to be.
People are not just born leaders, they begin as most Co-op camp participants at the beginning of the week: tentative and nervous, but excited to stretch themselves beyond their present capacities.
I think what many participants find rewarding about camp is the chance to escape from the ‘real world’ and be unabashedly yourself, to try out your adult shoes, indulge in a little improv comedy, create your own co-op, work on your public speaking, learn about global issues like HIV/AIDS, dance like an idiot in a talent show, and climb a ten foot high wall with nothing but a few friends to help give you a boost. More than that, it is a chance to gain some of the skills and confidence we all need to become true global citizens.
And at the end of the weekend, after everyone has packed up and gone, I always leave feeling like I will never have an experience quite like it again.