HIGH POINT, N.C. — Around 30 students got a hands-on experience of unique leadership skills, including from firefighters, through a program with the High Point Police Department and High Point University.
What You Need To Know
- North Carolina has over 1,000 registered fire departments, which are almost all or mostly volunteer stations
- Volunteer firefighters have reached a low, while calls for help have increased
- The HPPD/HPU Youth Leadership Academy is teaching high school students leadership skills through different experiences, like taking part in a fire training
- About 30 students a year get to take part in the academy
Spending their summer gardening, helping the elderly and learning how to use the jaws of life is not how many high schoolers picture their time off from class. Although when Chendle Martin, a rising high school senior, heard about this opportunity through his sister’s orientation at High Point University, he jumped at the chance.
“It opened up to where I could apply, and I was accepted. So I was I was really excited about doing it,” Martin said.
Around 30 students are selected to take part in the HPPD/HPU Youth Leadership Academy. It's been going on for the past ten years. The students selected for the two-week academy are picked by school resource officers and then go through a selection process, including an essay.
“We get the kids more involved and show them opportunities that there are not just within High Point but across the state,” said officer Melina Bundy, a school resource officer at High Point Police Department who is helping lead the academy.
Selected students hear different leadership speeches, help the community, discover different career paths and learn how their community works. It also pushes them out of their comfort zone, like repelling off of buildings, using a fire hose and going 100 feet up in the air on a fire ladder with the High Point Fire Department.
“There's a lot of ways you can help save somebody's life and the impact you could have on your life. Being able to help somebody and you see that you're doing something good in the community, that that'll give you joy,” Martin said.
The high schooler says he will take the leadership skills he is learning outside of the classroom.
“I'll be trying to take initiative. It's a good way to start with your leadership in allowing everybody to have a say in other things to make sure that nobody is feeling like they're left out or like they don't have a say,” Martin said.
Besides different experiences, learning about new careers or activities can spark the students' minds, allowing Martin to use his desire for construction, carpentry or engineering to ask professionals unique questions that could benefit the community.
“Maybe I could try to create something that could help the fire department get or do things faster or quicker to set out the fire out,” Martin said. Or learning to battle a fire may create an interest in the field.
The U.S. Fire Administration says North Carolina has over 1,000 registered fire departments, with almost 90% being volunteer or mostly volunteer stations. Although the National Volunteer Fire Council says the number of volunteer firefighters in the U.S. reached a low in 2020 while the call volume has more than tripled in the past few decades.
“I want them to be future leaders, to take what they learn here and pass it down to the next generation and the next generation and hopefully just be that good example that we all need,” Bundy said.
