A PROVEN MODEL

New ECU summer camp teaches leadership skills

A new week-long summer camp at East Carolina University will offer 40 high school students a chance to grow their leadership skills.

Organizers of the Shelton Leadership Challenge, running July 15-20, are now accepting applications. Youths entering the ninth through 12th grades or who graduate from highschool this spring can be included in the first class at ECU.

Students accepted into the six-day residential program will participate in activities that help build a greater understanding of personal leadership assessment and interpersonal dynamics; the role of values and ethics in leadership; leadership traits and approaches; teambuilding and empowering others; civic and social responsibility; and goal setting.
Low and high ropes courses, a service project, and fun night activities organized by the students help them get to know one another.

“I truly believe in this program and it has had a huge impact on my life,” said Michael Carter, an ECU freshman who completed the Shelton Leadership Challenge at N.C. State University in 2009. “Shelton introduced me to new perspectives, as well as two teams that became my family.”

The challenge program was developed at N.C. State’s Shelton Leadership Center, created a decade ago by alumus Gen. H. Hugh Shelton. After a 38-year career in the U.S. Army, Shelton became the 14th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October 1997 and served two terms.

Among his many military awards, Shelton has received four Defense Distinguished Service Medals, two Army Distinguished Service Medals, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor and the Purple Heart. He has been decorated by 16 foreign governments and, in 2001, Shelton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

“The leadership challenge…has public service built into it, has a social responsibility component, has a diversity component, has integrity, honesty. Those are the cornerstones,” said Mandee Foushee Lancaster, director of the Shelton Leadership Initiative in ECU’s Office of Engagement, Innovation and Economic Development.

“With higher education in general and at ECU…we want everyone to uphold those cornerstones: anybody who works here, anybody who comes here, anybody who wants to come here and anybody who leaves here. We’re really trying to be a leadership university and this is a very good model, a proven model that really changes the kids,” she said.

The program at ECU is led by other high school students who have completed the Shelton Challenge, college students like Carter and ECU faculty and staff volunteers.
Applicants must have at a 3.0 or higher GPA and two references to be eligible. The deadline to apply is June 15 and the cost of the program is $575 per student.

Organizers are seeking sponsors to help defer some of the program costs, which include transportation, lodging and meals. Anyone wishing to help fund the program can donate in the following ways:

• A student fee scholarship of $650 per youth
• A student partial scholarship of $325 per youth
• An ECU Shelton Challenge general fund donation
• By sponsoring a refreshment break for $200
• Corporate sponsors can add their logo to participant T-shirts for $500.

For more information about the Shelton Leadership Challenge at ECU, visit http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/oeied/ECU-SLC.cfm.