Teens Learn to Lead at PYLI

Blindfolded students walk through an obstacle course with help from their sighted partners in a Points of Light Youth Leadership Institute trust building exercise. 

 Twenty Tioga County teens braved the intense Points of Light Youth Leadership Institute's (PYLI) leadership training seminar November 5 through 7 at El Rancho de Paz in Owego in order to improve their leadership and community service skills. 

 The PYLI curriculum was developed for high school students in grades 8-12 by the Center for Creative Leadership and includes 30 hours of interactive lessons designed to teach goal setting, team building, project planning, and decision making with an emphasis on applying these skills to community service endeavors. The twenty teens are now working on service projects in their communities, which they will complete before graduating in February. 

 The Charles H. Bassett Youth Foundation and Tioga County Reality Check sponsored the training, which was organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tioga County's (CCE Tioga) Youth Development Program. This is its eighth year in operation in the county. 

 Ruthanne Orth, CCE Tioga 4-H Youth Development Educator, and her husband, Dick Orth, a facilitator with IBM, organized the training and guided the students through the demanding exercises with the help of Eric Watkins, Youth Services Coordinator with the Owego Police Department, Rachel Winnick, Tioga County Reality Check Coordinator, and Susan Rausch, CCE Tioga 4-H Youth Development Educator. 

 Past PYLI graduates Sarah Ajaeb, Julie Gorman, Megan Ross and Tyler Watkins served as youth facilitators for the event.

 Ajaeb said, "PYLI was a very valuable experience for me and I wanted to help make it that way for the new participants," which reflected all of the youth facilitators' sentiments. 

 Participants included Corinne Armstrong, Christopher Burton, Rianna Carlisle, Tim Corlett, Jenny Elston, Rachael Fagan, Alexis Fairbanks, Jason Goble, Reid Jones, Kayla King, Deanna Lemmon, Zachary Mandeville, Jillian O'Rourke, Lindsay Schneider, Tessali Skiff, Samantha Townsend, Kristi VanDusen, Dylan Vendryes, Erica Young and Olivia Young. 

 Owego Free Academy freshman Samantha Townsend said, "I learned that I can make a difference and that I have the skills to be a leader." 
 For more information about PYLI or other youth development programs at CCE Tioga contact Ruthanne Orth at 687-4020.