By Bill Spitzer

Austin Public Schools

A couple of weeks back, 21 students from Austin High School, Pacelli and Ellis Middle School journeyed to Baxter, Minnesota.  The destination was Arrowwood Lodge for a Youth Leadership Academy.  The day and a half event included a motivational speaker, workshops and fun filled activities.

These 21 students were among a newly formed group called STAND, Students Taking A New Direction. The STAND group meets in all three school buildings twice a month to discuss many topics, including how they can continually make a positive impact within their school.

The Youth Leadership Academy (YLA) is an annual event that is intended to enrich students with knowledge to be better leaders within their schools and communities.  In addition, STAND members were exposed to networking opportunities with 10 other student groups from communities across the state.  Students gathered in several rooms to share their projects they had completed in the past year as well as ventures they are currently working on in their communities.  These conversations sparked opportunities for new ideas and for groups to replicate similar activities in their community.

Leading off the event was a keynote speaker, Harriet Turk. The very dynamic speaker quickly involved the group and captured their attention with a simple line, “Just deal with it!”

Turk even captured my attention when she talked about the different costumes we wear when talking with different groups of people.  It made me think back to my high school years when I associated with many different groups.  I can remember I acted in a way to mirror the others in the group to fit in. Sometimes I would forget which costume I was supposed to wear in which group, fetching weird looks from those friends.

I quickly found out it was tough to please everyone and decided that I would just be myself.  That personal choice resulted in the fact that I would lose some friends.

Turk’s answer was the same, be yourself and deal with whatever comes as a result of it. Most people that I have encountered want to please everyone, but that doesn’t work all that well and we end up losing our own identity in the process. We certainly want everyone to like us, but that is a daunting goal to reach.

Harriet Turk proposed a question, “If you don’t honor and respect yourself why should others respect you?”

Learning that you matter just as much as others can be an added prevention tool to resist substance abuse.  So just be yourself and deal with it.

Bill Spitzer is the Planning and Implementation (P & I) Coordinator working closely with APAC (Austin Positive Action Coalition).  APAC and Bill will be working with our schools and community as part of a 5-year grant focusing on Positive Community Norms.  Feel free to contact him at the Austin High School 507.460.1800 ext. 0361 or via e-mail bill.spitzer@austin.k12.mn.us.  This grant is made possible by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, ADAD and hosted locally by the PRC.  To learn more about the Parenting Resource, visit their website at www.familiesandcommunities.org