HPU Hosts High School Students at 10th Annual Youth Leadership Academy
HIGH POINT, N.C., June 17, 2024 – High Point University and the High Point Police Department kicked off the 10th Annual Youth Leadership Academy on June 10 for more than 25 high school students from across the Piedmont Triad.
The academy provides opportunities for the local teens to develop their leadership skills. Each summer, HPU partners with the High Point Police Department to host and support the two-week academy, which brings together high school student leaders from 13 schools.
The teenagers were selected for competitive spots in the program by HPPD School Resource Officers (SROs). Participants built their leadership skills while completing service projects and activities at organizations around the city of High Point. They also toured the HPU campus and learned more about leadership from guest speakers from HPU, the police department and the community.
“This leadership opportunity for the youth is like no other,” said Melina Bundy, an SRO at High Point Central High School. “It’s important to show these kids what’s out there and the different types of leadership there are in our community. They get some of these lifetime experiences that they might not have had, but it will be with them forever.”
Partnering with HPU for the annual academy has been a smooth process every year, Bundy said.
“They provide us with a lot of things that we wouldn’t have like transportation and a place to host it. They make those things possible for us,” said Bundy. “They help host our meet-and-greet and our graduation. Honestly, it wouldn’t be as nice if we were to hold it somewhere else.”
Sam Carr, HPU director of Student Leadership and University Relations, described it as an honor to host the Youth Leadership Academy.
“As The Premier Life Skills University, we hope that their time here is filled with success and progressing their leadership skills so they can grow both personally and professionally in their spheres of influence,” Carr said. “We are so proud of these future leaders of our community, and it is a privilege to provide a space for them to learn and grow.”
Noelle Martin, a freshman at Phoenix Academy, said she hopes to learn how to be a better leader. She shared a key takeaway toward that goal from the first morning of the leadership academy.
“Something I’ve learned so far was that your day can start great if you make your bed,” said Martin. “If you have negative things going on, you already have order if you make your bed every morning and get off to a great start.”
Jordan Williams, a sophomore at Southwest Guilford High School, agreed with Martin’s perspective.
“One of the things we learned is about having the right mindset every morning,” said Williams. “Your mindset depicts how you act and how your future goes. If you’re being positive, you can accept that you learn from failures and mistakes.”
Other activities for HPPD Youth Leadership Academy students included:
- Painting and gardening at Parkview Village Elementary School
- Training at the High Point Fire Training Center
- Helping to build a Habitat for Humanity home or working in the Habitat Re-Store
- Viewing SWAT and K-9 demonstrations
- Hiking at Hanging Rock State Park
- Shopping and playing board games with Brookdale Retirement Center residents
- Touring the Airborne and Special Operations Museum at Fort Liberty
- Navigating at the U.S. National Whitewater Center
- Playing kickball with police officers at Truist Point, the High Point Rockers stadium
- Swimming at the High Point YWCA