On Wednesday, April 24th, 2024, 10 Morgan students attended the Shoreline Leadership Conference at Lyme Old Lyme High School. The students arrived at the school around 8:30 AM. Groups of student athletes from all the Shoreline schools also attended. A company called Empower led the conference. Empower leadership delivers exciting and fun adventures that inspire team work and personal development. Empower leadership has three locations, in CT, FL, and VA. The founder, Joe DeRing created this company after his experience in the military. He learned important lessons that he wanted to share with others. He learned that overcoming fears and completing missions changed the way he viewed hardship and difficulty. He discovered that the ability to overcome fears and challenges is the most important skill a human can possess. To begin, all the students stood in the center of the gymnasium floor. Students were then instructed to greet someone from a different school, and then ask them their name, sport, and what they want to get out of the conference today. After this meet and greet, students were then broken up into three breakout groups. These groups took part in different team building activities, and activities about leadership styles. 

Station one

One station allowed students to figure out what their leadership style is, and how to effectively use their strengths in a group setting. Students were brought to the courtyard, and asked questions about their personality. If they thought the statement applied to them, they would move to one side of the area, and if they thought it didn’t, they would move to the opposite side. Then, there was another statement, and you would move up if it applied to you, and back if it didn’t apply to you. The students found themselves separated into 4 different groups, and the Empower representative told us what our leadership styles were. Students then returned inside to talk about what each of the styles mean, and which other group they would work best with and why. 

Station two

For another station, students were located in the gym. The Empower leader separated student into 4 or 5 small groups. The first task was a matching game. The group was located at one side of the gym, and students in the group would take turns running to the matching cards and flipping two others. The one problem was that you could only talk to your teammates to tell them where certain cards were when you were back with your group at the other end of the gym. The challenge was remembering where things were, and figuring out how to describe the location to your teammates. After the game finished, we learned that this game helped us learn how to communicate and work with others. The second game that we played in this station involved a plastic board with rope attached at each side and corner. The goal was to balance a tennis ball on the board and bring it over to a bucket, and then dump it in. The key was for every person in your group to pull one rope tight, therefore keeping the board straight. Students also had to figure out how to walk the same speed and in sync, so that the board did not get off-balance. This station taught us how to work with others in difficult situations.

Station three

Students were split into 4 smaller groups. The first game that was played, resembled the well known game of “the floor is lava”. Each student in the group had a flat rubber disk. The goal was for your entire group to get across the gym without touching the floor. The other challenge was that every rubber disc had to be in human contact at all times. After a few failed attempts, students figured out how to communicate and work together to complete this challenge. The second game that was played involved cylindrical tubes that were cut in half, so that they were open. Each group had one of these 2 foot long tubes per person, and one tennis ball. The goal was to roll the tennis balls on the tubes across the gym, and into a small bucket. When the ball was on your tube, you could not move your feet. This challenge also focused on teamwork and communication. 

Student athletes were also provided with lunch. Sandwiches, chips, granola bars, and water were served. At the end of the conference, one person from every school talked about their main takeaways from the day, and how they would implement them into the school and team setting. Morgan students returned to school at around 1:15. 

Sophomore Jacquelyn Ciarleglio, who attended, said, “This leadership conference that we attended was really good for collaboration purposes, and knowing how to work together with other people even if you don’t know them. I also learned what my leadership style is, and qualities of the different leadership styles.”