Student Feature Friday - Blackstone Valley Youth Leadership Academy Graduates

Left to right - Max Robakiewicz, Kealani Peters, Sarah Nasif, Ashley Round

Over the course of the school year four Nipmuc students - Sarah Nasif, Kealani Peters, Max Robakiewicz, and Ashley Round - participated in the Blackstone Valley Youth Leadership Academy. Run by the Blackstone Valley Education Foundation (BVEF), the leadership academy provides students with the chance to work with a cohort of student-leaders from high schools across the Blackstone Valley. The group meets regularly to participate in leadership training, gain familiarity with important historical sites in the valley, and organize a community service project. I was proud to attend the recent graduation from the program and see how well our students represented Nipmuc. Included below are some thoughts from our leaders about their experience.

Sarah Nasif
Q: What was the most impactful part of being a member of the Blackstone Valley Youth Leadership Academy?
A: Blackstone Valley Youth Leadership Academy most noticeably helped me to realize the way that one can silently be a leader. In my class, there were introverts and extroverts. When it came to showing leadership, especially in their community service projects, both types of people succeeded and shined.
Q: Tell me about your community service project and what the project taught you about leadership.
A: I orchestrated a volunteer event to landscape the Upton Senior Center. From my event, I learned how to network and professionally communicate with people, especially for donations. Gaining floral and supply donations involved proper emailing and appropriate follow ups with donors as well as showing thankfulness. My project also taught me that leadership involves having a solid plan, which is why I constructed a list of steps for how the volunteers and I would plant.

Kealani Peters
Q: What was the most impactful part of being a member of the Blackstone Valley Youth Leadership Academy?
A: The most impactful part of the Blackstone Valley Youth Leadership Academy for me was meeting new people from other places and really connecting with them. I am so glad to have done this program and had a lot of fun with it.
Q: Tell me about your community service project and what the project taught you about leadership.
A: I collected coloring books, crayons, markers, stickers, etc. for the Milford Hospital Pediatrics Unit. I collected over 150 coloring books and many other supplies. It helped me realize that being a leader is about being organized, coordinated, and taking charge.

Max Robakiewicz
Q: What was the most impactful part of being a member of the Blackstone Valley Youth Leadership Academy?
A: The most impactful part of being a member of BVYLA is the chance to meet new people and not only making new friends but also being able to incorporate their ways of leading into my leadership philosophy in order to become better at leading.
Q: Tell me about your community service project and what the project taught you about leadership.
A: My community project was collecting items for Milford Regional Medical Center's Comfort Care. They are an organization which gives goods to dying patient's families to comfort them during such a tough time. This taught me about leadership through being able to understand how much a role of a leader can impact people such as setting up donations for a good cause.

Ashley Round
Q: What was the most impactful part of being a member of the Blackstone Valley Youth Leadership Academy?
A: The most impactful thing I took from BVYLA is applying my leadership skills with new people. Getting the chance to meet other leaders in the district was a great experience. Over the weeks, my leadership skills definitely grew because of the new friends I met. I think everyone took a little something from everyone, and it was a great group to be a part of.
Q: Tell me about your community service project and what the project taught you about leadership.
A: My community service project took place at Memorial Elementary School in Upton. I worked with kindergarteners after school in Mrs. Smith's class. The day I went to visit the students was St. Patrick's Day. I created a plan to do St. Patrick's themed activities with the students. I read them a book and then we did an additional activity with a pot of gold. Each student got to pick coins out of the pot and then they added their coins together. It was a lot of fun to work with these children. One of the biggest attributes of being a great leader is being a good role model. This definitely showed me how you have to be a good example to everyone you are around because you never know who is looking up to you. Especially younger children, at the age they are soaking in all the information they can get. Being older, they look up to you. I had a great time working with these students!