Girls Lead 2010- Front Page Article

Warroad Girls Leadership participants say "Goodbye" to Alpha Gamma Delta and the University of Minnesota until next year! Eighteen Warroad girls (Hannah Maunu, Megan Toso, Carly Luchen, Abby Erickson, Michelle Erickson, Meghan Gustafson, Summit Kuehn, Stephanie Hansana, Nicole Carlson, Dani Harder, Kelly Schaible, Tyler Hodgson, Tori Lien, Susanna Heppner, Joanna Heppner, Abigail Heppner, Gretta Brunelle and Grace Matz) embarked on a journey to Minneapolis that would never be forgotten - Leadership Camp at the University of Minnesota. We had a meaningful trip full of wonderful experiences and great accomplishments. Thank you to Women of Today, the leadership minors at the University of Minnesota and to M.C., the leader of the sorority house that we called home for the week of June 6-12. You made this event possible and we are grateful for the experience.
There was definitely not a dull moment for us girls throughout the week. Each day was long and strenuous, but packed with fun. We toured 3 U of M campuses - Crookston, Morris and Minneapolis.
The first night, we stayed at Crookston with STLF (Students Today Leaders Forever). The next day we did a community project at a wildlife habitat in the Crookston area. Then we headed off to Morris, where we took a short tour of the campus and that night arrived in Minneapolis at our sorority house - Alpha Gamma Delta, where we would spend the rest of the week.
Each day was another adventure. Before heading off from Warroad, each girl took the Strengths Finder Test to find out what our top five strengths were that we could apply in our leadership journey. We all learned how we can tie our strengths together to make a team of driven girls reaching for the same goal.
Throughout the week, we discussed what we feel are "setbacks" in the Warroad Community/School District. After some brainstorming, we decided to touch on the "bad attitude" subject in our high school students. This was chosen because a bad attitude causes a lot of problems. We strongly feel we need to reverse this and create positive role models for the younger kids who can, in turn, be positive role models to their followers.
Girls Leadership plans on using many different tactics to solve this problem and keep it from growing. To achieve this, we formed two sub-committees. One committee is the "Why are there bad attitudes in kids?" group, and the second committee was the "What can we do about it?" group. Each committee will have one meeting every week to touch base with each other and put ideas into practice.
The first group has the task of dissecting the problem, then collaborating with group two to solve the problem based on the completed research. In combining our strengths and what we have learned, we truly feel we can make a difference. Kids need to have a hope for their future and what they can accomplish. They need to respect their authority, take their work seriously, and create dreams to reach for.
We learned that in order to make a difference, we need to be willing to get out of our comfort zone. A quote we learned is, "There is no comfort in the growth zone, and no growth in the comfort zone." This really stretched us throughout the week. We did one-on-ones with random people we came across in the cafeteria, in the mall, etc. This was definitely interesting, and we got nothing but positive results.
On Friday, June 11, we visited M&I Bank in Minneapolis, where we proceeded to present what we feel is an issue and how we believe we can stop it. Each sub-committee presented their ideas. This was a great learning experience. We received positive feedback, along with useful tips and constructive criticism. We worked hard preparing for these speeches and are very pleased with the results. Later that day, the alumni of the Girls Leadership Camp presented their ideas to another group in hopes of receiving a grant. This was definitely a success! We are awaiting the results now. This grant will open many doors to future improvement.
Thank you to all who made this possible! We hope we can carry this on each year and improve as we grow in ourselves and as a team.