![\"intro](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/intro-practice.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWith less than 48 hours before Bayside High School\u2019s Leadership Workshop staff was going to welcome more than 80 delegates Saturday morning, the student leaders\u2019 to-do lists were long.<\/p>\n
Rehearse lines in skit practice.<\/p>\n
Practice dance steps for staff introduction.<\/p>\n
Finalize instructional materials.<\/p>\n
Organize and label t-shirts.<\/p>\n
Call student delegates.<\/p>\n
This is on top of the homework, athletic practices, jobs and family matters they also have on their lists.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, no one was panicked. No one was stressed. At least no one was showing it \u2014 especially not Ashley Williamson, government teacher, SCA adviser and leadership workshop coordinator at Bayside. This is the eighth leadership workshop she\u2019s coordinated at Bayside with a student staff, and she\u2019s had years of experience planning leadership workshops, dating back to her days at a student leader at Ocean Lakes High School (OLHS).<\/p>\n
The 1999 OLHS graduate served as SCA secretary and SCA president in addition to being a student athlete and volunteering her time with other activities.\u00a0But Williamson admits she didn\u2019t foresee that as a rising ninth-grader.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came into Ocean Lakes wanting to be involved,\u201d she said. \u201cI played tennis, but I didn\u2019t really know anything about SCA. So I was probably one of those kids that was like, \u2018Oh, I want to run [for office], but I don\u2019t know what I want to do.\u2019 And then I found out what I was meant to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
She credits great teachers, her principal and her SCA adviser for inspiring her and for providing multiple opportunities to learn, lead and give back to her school.<\/p>\n
Now she is the one fostering such opportunities for high school students, and the 16 students serving on the leadership workshop staff are learning valuable lessons from the experience as she did.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve learned how to take responsibility,\u201d reflected senior Shayanne Harvey. \u201cIt\u2019s about stepping up and completing tasks on time \u2014 doing more, doing all that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have learned how to be a leader in a way that isn\u2019t controlling or assertive,\u201d said senior Shaina Moondra, workshop co-coordinator with Williamson.\u00a0\u201cCooperation skills are important.\u201d<\/p>\n Jalina Sabado, senior, agrees. \u201cI think the biggest thing I\u2019ve learned is working with others. Even though I might not be the best of friends with someone, the ultimate goal is those delegates this weekend,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Sabado also knows that her experience working with groups will help her when she graduates high school. \u201cWorking with colleagues in college and the workplace will be easier with the things I\u2019ve learned here,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve learned that I definitely have more to learn,\u201d admitted senior Leilani Nieves. \u201cI\u2019ve been involved with SCA and clubs for a while, and I thought I knew group dynamics.\u00a0But then it was harder than I thought it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n Communication is key, something senior Sangeeta Sharma learned. \u201cIt was important to make sure we all were talking to one another so we could help each other out when we needed it most,\u201d Sharma said. \u201cIt was nice. We were able to accomplish a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n All of their efforts came to bear in a weekend workshop Feb. 27-28 held in Wakefield, Virginia, focused on the theme \u201cChanging the Tide.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hope they do want to get more involved in school after the weekend,\u201d said senior Katie Phipps.\u00a0\u201cThey might just do school work and not get involved, so maybe [workshop] changes how they perceive high school as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor me personally,\u00a0it means getting more males involved in leadership roles,\u201d said Moondra of changing the tide at Bayside. \u201cI\u2019m really going to focus on getting the males to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n A male who has stepped up, senior Triniti Gadsden and first-year workshop staff member, said, \u201cI hope that they see that being a leader can be fun. And there\u2019s more to it than just saying, \u2018I\u2019m the leader.\u2019 You have to back it up with your actions and your interactions with others.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that something just lights their fire for being involved because it just takes a little something for you to want to be involved later,\u201d said Nieves.<\/p>\n Moondra agreed with Nieves, noting that she hopes Bayside\u2019s workshop inspires students to \u201cdecide they want to be a part of something that\u2019s ultimately bigger than themselves and bring back the skills they learned to make a difference at school.\u201d<\/p>\n Giving back to their school is what Williamson likes to hear. \u201cIt\u2019s about leaving Bayside a better place,\u201d she said. Her student leaders also give back to other schools by supporting leadership workshops at middle and elementary schools they attended.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Leilani said it best. We want to ignite the fire. That\u2019s a perfect answer,\u201d said Williamson. \u201cMaybe something as small as this will ignite what can be a lifetime of wanting to be involved. Just for me personally, I got involved in high school. I got involved in college, and now it\u2019s my life. I see these children more than I see my own family because it means a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI love Bayside,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to come back and see a little bit of myself in these kids\u2019 eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bayside High School leadership workshop is supported in part by a Virginia Beach Education Foundation (VBEF) grant underwritten by Nancy and Robert DeFord as well as the Virginia Beach Education Foundation. To learn more about how you can support innovative and creating learning projects through the VBEF, visit <\/em>www.vbef.org<\/em><\/a> or call 757-263-1337.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With less than 48 hours before Bayside High School\u2019s Leadership Workshop staff was going to welcome more than 80 delegates Saturday morning, the student leaders\u2019 to-do lists were long. Rehearse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[72,130],"class_list":["post-4849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bayside-high","tag-student-activities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4849"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6417,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions\/6417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Williamson](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Williamson-w-students.jpg\")
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