Blog/opportunities

STLF Gap Camp

A look back to about a month ago at STLF's 2nd Annual Gap Camp.

Author: Danny Walter, STLF

After a successful first summer of Students Today Leaders Forever "Gap Camp" in 2009, staff members, directors, and crew were excited to see how the second year would fair. What started off as 7 amazing campers from the class of 2009, ultimately ballooned to 20 new Gap Campers from Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Oregon in2010. Everyone stepped foot on the campus of UW-Stout in Menomonie, WI in mid July excited, nervous, anxious, and most importantly, full of questions.  After four years of high school their lives were about to change.  What are college classes like?  What if I get a terrible roommate?  How will I meet new friends?  What about the pressures of drugs and alcohol?  How can I stay involved?  These questions and many, many more were posed and answered during STLF's 5 day leadership experience for recent high school graduates.  Programming included activities designed to enhance skills in the areas of teamwork, time management, public speaking, relationship building, community service and future involvement in STLF.  Multiple open forums were held where students facilitated discussions on a variety of questions and concerns about their futures and the pressures that college places on today's youth.  The Gap Camp class of 2010 was full of unique personalities, all of whom have the gift to positively influence others.

Take Elena, for example. An STLF veteran at the age of 18.  Growing up in the small town of Perham, MN, Elena always surrounded herself with positive people and believed strongly in helping others.  Easily a "camp favorite", this was Elena's fifth summer at camp.  While some years it seemed like she wouldn't be able to get the time off work or get back from vacations soon enough, she always made it work because she knew that the relationships made and the lessons learned at camp were more valuable than most other things a teenager could be doing with their summer.  An organizer of the 2009 Fill the Dome project in Fargo, ND, Elena spent countless hours volunteering for the event that ultimately raised $75,000 and 75 tons of food to help local food banks.  It was with great excitement that Elena announced she will be attending the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities where she will make a huge impact on an already strong chapter!

Or how about Shaun.  Growing up in the rough neighborhoods of Englewood, IL, the temptations of money and power that Gang's offered sounded appealing to Shaun.  Like many young men his age, Shaun quickly immersed himself in the gang until it was all that he knew.  By seventh grade, he was dealing drugs on a street corner near his home.  Shaun admits that he carried a pistol around at all times for his personal protection.  After seeing multiple friends and relatives die senselessly due to gang violence along with a near death experience himself, Shaun decided to leave the gang and turn his life around.  He enrolled in Urban Prep Academy in Chicago; a brand new school designed to take young black men off the street and prepare them for college.  In 2010, Shaun led the first graduating class of Urban Prep as their student body president and is now enrolled at Fisk University in Nashville, TN.  

In the end, 20 recently graduated high school students, weeks away from starting new chapters in their lives, traveled to western Wisconsin.  Some drove an hour, others flew 2,000 miles.  Some marked the dates in their calendars a year earlier, others decided to participate just hours before the camp's start.  No matter how far they traveled or how far in advance they committed themselves to camp, no matter if they came with friends or showed up alone with the hopes of making new ones, at the end of the week 20 leaders left the 2nd annual Gap Camp confident that where ever the next phase of their lives takes them, they now have wealth of knowledge and resources to help guide them in the right direction.  Not to mention, new friendships that will last a lifetime.