Wayne Early Middle College High School students attend leadership camp
By Sierra Henry
Published in News on August 30, 2018 5:50 AM
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Wayne Early Middle College High School students Rebecca Eliassaint, front row eighth from left, and Tai Love, third row seventh from left, are among students who attended the Cooperative Leadership Camp at White Lake.
When Rebecca Eliassaint and Tai Love were accepted to attend the Cooperative Leadership Camp at White Lake for the second summer in a row, they immediately knew how they wanted their experience to go.
"When we went there (last year) and we saw that everybody was outgoing and everybody was excited to make new friends," Love said. "It was really cool.
"We decided to go again because we wanted to be those people for other kids who feel like, oh, this camp might not be the best."
While Love and Eliassaint said that they were more outgoing, they felt as though they held back on their personalities the first summer they attended the camp. This year, the two Wayne Early Middle College High School students said that they had a different goal.
"Personally, I was thinking, 'OK, you went there, you had a good time, now it's your time to grow even more,'" Love said. "... I still wanted to be outgoing (from the beginning), and I want to make friends.
"This was a place where I was like, 'OK, this is time for you to grow and communicate and talk with everyone.' I think that worked out really well."
The Cooperative Leadership Camp is hosted by the Cooperative Council of North Carolina and is a program meant for rising high school sophomores, juniors and seniors in North Carolina to learn about how cooperatives function.
The five-day camp teaches students about cooperatives through interactive leadership workshops meant to teach students problem-solving skills and how to work together.
A cooperative is a business model where the organization is run and owned by its members. As part of their team building exercises, Love and Eliassaint participated in a group activity where students were assigned to different areas of a cooperative based on a T-shirt company.
The different groups had to work together to make decisions regarding finance, design and budget planning in a way that would benefit the company and its members.
Eliassaint said the group learned more than just how cooperatives operate. Both students learned valuable leadership and communication skills that they used during and after the program. She described an instance where there were disagreements between students at the camp, as well as during a project she worked on at WEMCHS.
"In that kind of situation, I think you definitely have to take a leadership role and learn how to compromise at the same time," Eliassaint said. "We recently had a project in our class where we had to make a puppet show with a group about the story of Beowulf, and it was very hard. We had four days including a weekend to do it, and I had work all weekend, so we just all had to (decide), 'You do this, I do this.'
"We all had different ideas, and we had to put them together, and it came out really good."
Every summer, CCNC member cooperatives have the opportunity to sponsor a student from their community to attend the camp for free. This year, Coastal Credit Union provided the sponsorship for Eliassaint.
Eliassaint is the former president of Key Club, is a member of the Mayor's Youth Council and assists as the audio-visual technician at her church.
She also is a member of the Performing Arts Club and co-wrote a black history play at Dillard Middle School. Eliassaint is also in the Honors Program at Wayne Community College and is on the dean's list.
After she graduates, Eliassaint hopes to attend Winston-Salem State University to pursue a major in laboratory science.
"I've always been interested in helping people," Eliassaint said. "I remember we had a project freshman year in a college class and it was like, 'What do you want your legacy to be?'
"Ever since then, I've wanted to leave my mark somewhere."
Greensboro Municipal Federal Credit Union provided the sponsorship for Love to attend the summer camp. Love is the president of WEMCHS Student Council, secretary of Key Club and a member of the Mayor's Youth Council, Performing Arts Club and Math Club. She is also in the Honors Program at WCC and is a Socratic Scholar.
After she graduates, Love hopes to attend the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to major in health care management. She plans to pursue a career that will allow her to utilize her leadership and organizational skills.
"I'm a very scientific person, very logical person, and I'm really good at the sciences, but I also enjoy working with people and doing that sort of thing," Love said. "I wouldn't say I'm afraid, but there are a lot of fluids involved in the medical field, and that's not really where I feel like I will be the best."
Eliassaint and Love encourages any student interested in the leadership camp to apply. Both say the camp is not as focused on grades as much as character and attitude.
"I've learned how to speak up for the things that I want and how to negotiate compromise," Love said. "I really think that going to the camp has made me more of a charismatic leader ... A lot more kids should go and try to apply.
"If you get accepted, you definitely should go because even though it seems scary, you never know what's going to happen. You never know what kind of friends you're going to make."