Scotiabank launches 5th leadership academy

THE Scotiabank Leadership Academy is in its fifth year working with Families in Action (FA) with a programme to help young people develop leadership skills. During the five-day programme they would learn to network with each other, learn to handle conflict and hone their leadership skills.

The programme this year would include a session on community and social responsibility where they would learn to not only develop themselves, but how to help other people in their communities.

The programme for 2018 was launched on Monday at All Saints Memorial Hall, Queen’s Park West.

Cheryl Hernandez, Scotiabank foundation support officer said that while this was the fifth year for this particular programme, Scotiabank and FA had formed a partnership 20 years ago.

She said the Scotiabank Youth Leadership Academy was one where certain students ages 14 to 16 were selected based on their potential and leadership capacity to apply for the programme which was administered by FA.

“It is one week with ten sessions, an intensive five-day session where FA would deliver different modules to help them develop their leadership skills. A lot of interactive sessions take place. The young people learn to network with each other, learn how to handle conflict, hone in on their leadership skills...

this year we will be including a session on community and social responsibility because at the end of the day this is really the goal. Scotiabank would like these young people to not only develop themselves, but learn how to help other people in their communities, help make our country a better place,” Hernandez said.

Shane Dass, 20, has been involved in programme since 2015. He is a graduate of San Fernando West Secondary and is now attending the University of TT studying for a Bachelor of Education. Dass said he wanted to be a secondary school teacher specialising in social studies and history.

“This programme helped us to set goals and to achieve them step by step and that has helped me since 2015 until now. We are dealing with youth and I love to work with the youth because they are the future of this country. They are the future ministers, future prime minister, future president of this country and, being a part of their lives, we get to form them and mould them and transform them into better people for the future and this country,” he said.