WILKES-BARRE – The 2020 Junior Leadership Wilkes-Barre applicants have been selected, with three GNA students finding success and making the cut.

Junior Leadership is a program aimed toward high school juniors with the intent of providing opportunities and resources to strengthen leadership skills. These leadership skills open up a whole new world of possibilities between personal/professional connections and community-building activities. This program serves some of the area’s best and brightest students, and Nanticoke just happens to be home to a few of them.

The GNA Insider had the opportunity to sit down with the nominees.

Colin Moorhead

What drove you to be a part of Junior Leadership?

I wanted to improve myself as a person as well as obtain skills to become a leader myself. The program was also highly revered by people who joined in the past, and it helps to have that on a college application.

What qualities do you think you exhibit that got you accepted into the program?

My refusal to give up, my empathy, my observational skills, and, most importantly, my desire to help others.

What does it mean to be a leader? How do you plan on executing this?

A leader is someone who can get the job done, but also bring people together and build relationships. The leader shouldn’t see the objective as a goal, but as a benchmark to build off of.

I’d see what needs to be done, then go to my group and pool our resources to find the best way to meet and exceed our goal.

What activities do you think the program has in store for you and the community?

I expect activities and presentations that help us discover things we never knew about our community and how we can make an impact on the future. 

Daniel Shevchenko

What drove you to be a part of Junior Leadership?

The desire to become more socially active and capable – to more easily interact with new acquaintances in a variety of settings – was my main motivation for joining Junior Leadership.

What qualities do you think you exhibit that got you accepted into the program?

Although I did not pride myself on any communicative or organizational abilities, I do believe that I exhibited (and still exhibit) an intense enough desire to impose these characteristics that note was taken of me. Indeed, I ought not say that my actions or responses at the acceptance interview for the program were, per se, of great interest; they did, however, display a goal of self-improvement – one shone enough to be taken into account for admission to Junior Leadership.

What does it mean to be a leader? How do you plan on executing this?

In my eyes, being a leader means being able to interact with others in an efficient manner and to take advantage of one’s partners’ individual capabilities in order to organize a project’s efforts and more forth with a goal.

Having already had some experience with similar endeavors with the Interact Club, I think that I will be able to use my pre-existing knowledge of group collaboration and my newly acquired acquaintances in order to carry out the project.

What activities do you think the program has in store for you and the community?

Thus far, the program has already introduced me to several important leaders of the NEPA community; this acquaintance, as well as others which are certain to follow, will likely be very useful insofar as personal connections and productivity will be concerned. Conversely, I daresay that as a result of this program, any other gains of knowledge of leadership capabilities will permit me to joyfully contribute to whatever society I will be a part of in my life as a whole; additionally, we hope that our project itself will improve the general state of the NEPA community.

Sophia Tattersall

What drove you to be a part of Junior Leadership?

To be honest, I heard of the opportunity in class one day during my sophomore year. I wanted to be more involved in programs, so I got the paperwork and handled it in! Plus, not too many Nanticoke kids applied so I believed I actually had a chance in a great local program such as this.

What qualities do you think you exhibit that got you accepted into the program?

There were other great candidates for this program, but during the interview, I believe they were looking for teens with potential rather than outward personality or abilities.

What does it mean to be a leader? How do you plan on executing this?

I believe being a leader means that you can make a plan, execute it accordingly, and are able to address what mistakes appear during the process. Being able to communicate ideas to a wide range of people is also a skill leaders have. These skills can be incorporated into a workplace or in a person’s life, and that’s exactly what I aim to do through this program!

What activities do you think the program has in store for you and the community?

Junior Leadership’s goal is to show us real leaders and entrepreneurs in our area in order to inspire us to become leaders in the future. By giving us the opportunity to create a project of our own, we can learn the common mistakes and successful techniques leaders encounter on a daily basis.