Local 8th grade student Margo McReynolds Gooch has just returned from four days in San Jose at the National Youth Leaders State Conference. She was the only Humboldt County student to attend the conference.
”I was the only Humboldt child,’ she says.
This is her second leadership conference. She attended a similar conference in Washington, D.C. last year on the recommendation of her teacher, Dan Brown.
Margo says that the conferences are held for students who have leadership and political capabilities to advance in those areas and hone their skills.
The conference was held in the San Jose Doubletree Hotel and the students were kept busy with rounds of workshops and break-out conferences.
”The small conferences were where we learned how to give speeches and speak properly,” Margo says, “and how to interact with people when giving speeches, getting feedback, when and when not to give advice, which is not the same as feedback, and how to speak within a time limit. We also had debate discussions about whether certain things were right or wrong.”
She says one of the hottest topics was whether schools should have uniforms.
”That was a big one,” she says, “a very big one for kids our age. Some of us like to express our creativity, but some of us like to keep everyone at the same level.”
She also attended quite a few workshops.
”One was on leadership traits that you can see in people, which was hard because I believe that everyone is a leader in their own way, through humor or just being able to tell someone you have to do this. We had a workshop on public speaking, one on writing a speech, and on helping other people give speeches.”
She says that one of her favorite activities at the conference was the scholar-led seminars.
”That’s what they called us,” she says, “scholars, and we got to create a seminar and present something. I was in the human rights seminar. We had a really fun one, because it was really simple. We all named our favorite human right. Mine was #11, which is that you’re innocent until proven guilty. My reason for picking that one was that I love to study the Salem witch trials and their law was that you’re guilty until proven innocent. My phrase was that I’d like to slap them in the face because I agree that everyone should be innocent until proven guilty.”
The human rights they were working with were written by Cyrus the Great (600-529 BCE), the founder of Persia.
”You are born with these rights and you have them until you die,” Margo says. “There are 30 of them and if any one of them is broken, they are all broken because they all connect to each other. Freedom of thought ties in with no slavery because slaves aren’t allowed to think for themselves. Number 30 is that you can’t take away anyone’s rights. It all ties together and it was very controversial. Some people thought one or the other wasn’t a right and then we had to explain to them why it was an important right to have. We actually changed some people’s opinions because they didn’t understand it or had a wrong approach to it.”
At the end of the seminar, they had a test to see what had been learned and Margo got to throw chocolate at the winner of the test.
What does she get out of going to these conferences? Inspiration, for certain. Last year, she came back from her conference in Washington to produce and direct a play at Redway School. This year, she has joined with her classmates for a Recycled Youth production.
But one of her main goals, she says, is to have a good resume that will ensure her a place in college.
”I’m hoping this will look good on a college resume,” she says. “I really want to go to college to study politics. And I also want to be a chef. A political chef is what the world needs.”
She also gets to help her fellow students with the skills she brings back.
”Some people say I can naturally help people onto the right path and these conferences help you do that,” she says.
She helps fellow students set goals and time lines to accomplish things in their lives.
Next July, Margo hopes to attend a leadership conference in Boston and another conference in Washington. D.C. Eventually, she might attend a conference in Europe or China.
”I really enjoyed it,” she says, “and I suggest that anyone who gets nominated to go, who gets the opportunity and gets the money for it, to go.”
REDWOOD TIMES PHOTO BY MARY ANDERSON
Margo McReynolds Gooch has just returned from a four-day leadership conference in San Jose. She believes that everyone has leadership qualities.
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