JRNYLC: The Junior National Young Leaders Conference is a week-long program held in Washington D.C. After visiting the website for detailed information, please contact Lisa Chandler if you are interested in pursuing a nomination for your child.
Has your child attended one of the Leadership Conferences in the past? How did s/he like it? Would you recommend applying to this program to another parent/child?
Overview:
During the week of June 24-28, 2013, I went to Washington D.C. to particpipate in the Junior National Young Leaders Conference. There, I was able to meet about 200 other middle schoolers from all over the country. We visited places like the White House, the Capitol, the different memorials, and famous museums. Most of our meals were eaten at the Hilton Hotel, and every person slept with two other assigned roomates in each hotel room on the first and second floors. The whole program was very organized, as we moved from place to place neatly and quickly, and followed a strict schedule that started at 7:00am each morning and ended at 10:00pm (or was supposed to) each night.
Day 1:
So first off, after a quick registration at the Hilton Hotel, I was dropped off at the “Meet and Greet”, where I grabbed a soda and started conversations with the other kids in the room. Everyone was really nice, and I met people from Arizona, California, Iowa, Pennsylvannia, and other states during those two hours. Afterwards, we had dinner in the hotel ballroom and were permitted to sit with our new friends as we ate. Then, everyone split up to meet their Leadership Focus Group. Your Leadership Focus Group, or LFG, is a group of about twenty other kids your age, led by a factulty advisor, or FA. My FA was Omar, a history teacher working on his PHD in Hummanities. All the FAs had some sort of experience leading a class, or some sort of special qualification in order to be an FA. At 10:00pm we were released to our sleeping rooms to get ready for bed and to meet our roomates. As we chatted while unpacking, my roomates and I established a bathroom schedule and got to know each other. My roomates were benevolent and amiable, and after a late room check at 10:30, we had showers and got ready for bed after calling home.
Day 2:
After breakfast at 7:15am, we got on the buses to drive by the White House, and to spend time at the Newseum. The Newseum is a museum that is dedicated to journalism and the history of the media, and also has a ginormus chunk of the Berlin Wall on display. I found it ironic that the biggest piece of the Wall is actually in America, not Germany, where it was built, but I still consider that to be my favorite exhibit in the Newseum. Although we were a big group, we traveled with our LFGs lead by our FAs. Plus, we all were dressed like “relaxed professionals” with the girls in skirts and dresses, and the guys in dress pants and button-down shirts. (We were told to pack according to the daily outfit schedule.) Not only that, we each wore a red neck wallet with our name, ID, hometown, and other information on it. So it was easy to stick with the group. Although I was pretty tired by the time we got back in the afternoon, we left to see the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and Vietnam War Veterans Memorial at 8:30pm after dinner and some activities with our LFG groups. We only spent a little time in each place we went to, or at least I thought so. But otherwise, it had been a good day.
Day 3:
Today, we visited Harpers Ferry, a once bustling town in the late nineteenth century, located in present day West Virginia. Once again, our visit had been well organized, as the tour guides had activities prepared for us once we got there. After a small tour, we learned the history of the abolishinist John Brown, and the raid he led there. Although it failed, we learned how and why he was a good leader, and got the chance to debate whether or not we would have joined him at the time. On Day 1, we had been given JrNYLC booklets that were filled with worsheets for us to do at different sites and information to read. Also in the booklets, there was a small play written, which we got the chance to act out at Harpers Ferry. Everyone was relieved when we went inside one of the tiny museums in Harpers Ferry, only to find that it wasn’t air conditioned. But the weather really wasn’t that hot. After lunch at a nearby hotel, we went back to Harpers Ferry to participate in a simulation that depicted what life was like under the control of the Union during the Civil War for the citizens of Harpers Ferry. That was super awesome! When we got back to the Hotel, we did another simulation with our LFGs in our LFG rooms, where we debated the freedom of speech in a certain situation. Tired from laughing so hard during the debate, my roomates and I fell asleep quickly after another late room check.
Day 4:
During the Vietnam War, American eighth grader Mary Beth Tinker and her older brother along with their friend Chris Eckhardt, were suspended for wearing Peace Patches to school in protest of the war. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, they were able to get their case to the Supreme Court and win. Now in her mid sixties, Mary Beth Tinker talked to us about our first amendment rights and her experience at the time. She is a very passionate lady, and her speech was inspiring and interesting. Since we had arrived late because we had got stuck in traffic, our time in the Capitol had to be cut short. But I was OK with that since I had already visited the capital during our field trip there in 7th grade. We then got back on the buses for a brief ride to the National Museum of American History. There, we visited the transportation and war exhibits. Once again, I felt rushed, but this time, I realized the the bookwork from our JrNYCl booklets had become a pain, and sort of took away from valuable time in the museum. But the exhibts themselves were phenomenal! Later, we went to the FDR and MLK memorials with our LFG groups. Our FA’s gave us brief tours, and at the MLK memorial, we read part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech”, and discussed how both FDR and MLK were leaders of America. We had to pack up our things before room check that night because the very next night, we were going to sleep at the Baltimore Science Center. Once that was done, we got ready for bed, but never went to bed until midnight. (We figured out how to open the sealed doors in our room to find that they led to the room next door! So after room check, we opened both doors on either side of our rooms and hung out with the other girls in the rooms next door until we got tired.)
Day 5:
We spent the majority of the day in our LFGs today, working on a project. For the project, we worked as a group to come up with an organization that would provide disaster relief. Then, we were split into smaller groups to work on different parts of the project and then present the entire project to other LFGs. That was also pretty cool. In the evening, we left for Baltimore. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe; something I had been looking forward to. After a good dinner, we left for the Science Center. Once there, we changed into pjamas and got the chance to look around the museum for an hour. The museum was very well done; super kid friendly and hands-on. Plus, all the exhibits were written in an understandable manner, making it a place I would want to visit again. At 9:00ish, we watched an IMAX movie about the adventures of an Artic explorer in the Science Center’s IMAX theatre. It was actually an engaging nonfiction film which I found quite enjoyable. Afterwards, once I found a place to sleep with my friends, I went to bed. (It took about an hour to finally settle down because the computer programed height measurer kept asking us if we wanted to be measured.)
Day 6:
I now extremely dislike the song, “Good Morning Baltimore.” Why? It was the song that they blared over the PA at six in the morning to wake everyone up. Being the slow riser that I am, I was not happy about that. I quickly perked up after a quick breakfast, but my mood deflated again when they began to organize everyone to leave. It was so sad. Cellphone numbers were exchanged, as were hugs, handshakes, and goodbyes. While some of us left to go back to the Hilton to be picked up by car, others went to the airport, and others to the train station. Although I hadn’t grown particularily close to anyone, I knew I would miss everyone, including my awesome FA, Omar. JrNYLC not only gave me tons of knowledge, and new experiences; it also gave me new friends.