Dream Leader-Dreams and Disney

Over President's Day Weekend I met 25 of the most inspiring young people from all over the world... the US, Mexico, Jamaica, Panama, Ecuador and Costa Rica. We spent 4days bringing the book and game "Dream Leader" to life at Disney World.

The four day program consisted of learning, laughing, leadership, specialized workshops on dream setting.

Winter Leadership Conferences in Oregon

This past week I had the amazing opportunity of traveling around Southern and Eastern Oregon with Nancy Moen, the State Director of OASC www.oasc.org and meeting amazing students and advisers through regional leadership conferences. Here was our first school (mostly MS students- pic.the host school).



We had a four day tour starting in Hermiston, then to Hillsbro, followed by Roseburg and finally ending in Beaverton. All in all, we saw about 500 leadership students in middle and high school. Here is our second stop, (all HS studnets-pic.host school)!



The days consisted of ice breakers, a keynote message "Go Big and Make A Big Difference", a leadership workshop on leadership styles, lunch and finally a swap shop on new ideas and activities. The kids were really focused and energized at all four sites. Here are pictures with the host schools (host schools for days 3 and 4). Thanks OASC for a great time!

Where in the World?

So the holidays flew by and I had the opportunity to go to Israel in the month of January and kick off 2009 in an incredible way! It was one of those once in a life time experiences... so very hard to put words to the whole experience, other than saying, "It was AMAZING!"

Just to give you an idea of what the day to day was like, we traveled by bus all over the country, stayed at a total of 4 hotels, at each one we had 3 to a room. On the bus: 37 American participants in Taglit-Birthright Program all ages 22-26 from Los Angeles, 8 Israeli soldiers there to share the experience with us, 2 group leaders from LA employed by Birthright to make sure the trip goes smoothly, 1-2 Israeli armed guards (quantity depending on our location- in the North and Jerusalem we had to have more), one amazing profession tour guide, and hilarious bus driver. All 50 of us were on and off that bus like 12 times a day, and each time we boarded we had to "count off" to make sure we weren't forgetting anyone.


We visited sites such as Golan Heights, floated in the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, stayed in Bedouin camps, rode camels, climbed Masada...and so much more. It was often the moments in between the moments that I learned the most or had the personal connections. A highlight was visiting the Holocaust Museum and dancing with Holocaust Survivors. There is so much to say about the people, the state, the situation, the amazing beauty of the country...a quick blog is just my attempt to share the other side of Israel that is not often shown on CNN.

And now...back on the road, new and exciting leadership products for 2009, more conferences, friends and memories to be made.

Weekend of Fun At NAWD-National Association of Workshop Directors

This weekend I had the joy and honor of attending and presenting at my 2nd annual NAWD conference (see workshop photo above- “Quick Leadership Activities”). There were so many great ideas and wonderful advisors in attendance.

One of my favorite ideas was from Stephanie Brake from Missouri. The community service project is called, “Make A Wish” Believe Campaign. I wanted to share it with everyone during this holiday season, so you too can help out and have your students write letters.

Children can help grant wishes by writing letters telling why they believe in Santa Claus. Bring the letters to a Macy’s BELIEVE Station and Macy’s will donate $1 for every letter received to the Make A Wish Foundation. Imagine if you had 1,000 students or more write letters during the day…what a great and easy way to help out! Check out this site, http://www.wish.org/help/macy_s_believe for more information.

I look forward to hearing how this project goes for you! Happy Holidays!

NY State Student Council Conference

The NY State student council conference was chilly, but full of warm people. I had the opportuinty to be a "show case" speaker and was sponsored by Herff Jones to lead two keynotes with about 400 student leaders in each group. It was fun and these young ladies in the pictures were the student gov. officers of their school.

The highlight of this conference was hearing another speaker by the name of Mawai http://www.mawispeaks.com/. He is beyond inspirational and a wonderful speaker. He fled civil war in Ethiopia and survived a Sudanese refugee camp for three years. After being resettled in The United States, Mawi overcame welfare, language barriers and personal tragedy to graduate from Harvard University. What a great reminder about how we can preserve through any hardships!

Girls Only Conference ROCKED!

Yesterday I was in Northern California for a Girls Only Leadership Conference. It was so much fun and such a unique conference. We had 289 junior and seniors in HS and 13 advisors-it was an amazing group! I had the opportunity to speak with Shyana Boyte and another young woman Karla Lyngrar. We had three keynote speakers and then the girls had discussion groups about the keynote message.


It was great to see the young ladies connect with each other and think a little deeper about their own lives and who they are becoming. Also, it was extra special for me to work with Phil Boyte (the speaker I met when I was 13 years old, who inspired me to be a speaker). He had the vision for this event and did a wonderful job putting the conference on and organizing the day! I hope to do more Young Women conferences and events in the future---they ROCK!

NHS-National Honor Society Conference- It was an HONOR

This past weekend I had the honor of being at the NHS conference in Orlando, Fl. There were over 850 NHS and NHJS students from across the nation. The students in this picture were the two student emcees for the conference and very inspiring young people. Gordon and Charlotte did a wonderful job and it was tons of fun coaching them on delivery skills (although they are both naturals)! While not working with the emcees, I presented two workshops on Communication Skills and Building Dreams for Life. Also, the closing speaker, Bob Tryanski, www.bobtryanski.com did a great job and it is always fun to see speaker friends on the road!