Leadership Institute trains teenagers with TeenPact
 

















TeenPact students receive a complimentary copy of Ronald Reagan's Hand of Providence after a full week of Leadership Institute campaign training.


September 22, 2010, Arlington, VA—This past week the Leadership Institute hosted and trained 64 high-school teens in the public policy process in order to become effective campaign activists.

The Road to the White House training series consisted of lectures and applied exercises. Exercises included: Developing a campaign organization through selection of effective staff; Creating a message and campaign theme based on candidate bios; and How to design effective campaign literature.

“LI’s role was to design and tailor the curriculum to fit the needs of teenagers, providing them experience in political techniques and strategies,” said LI Coordinator for TeenPact Tyler Foote.

LI’s Steven P.J. Wood Building houses in its bottom floor several dormitories where these teens stayed throughout the duration of their training.  Students were from over 15 states.

Participants traveled throughout the District of Columbia to sight see in the morning and returned to LI for lectures in the afternoon, hands-on exercises in the evening and a devotional at night.

TeenPact Vice President of Operations Lydia Shanks said, “As I talked to the students and observed them over the week, the students walked away with accessibility to politics. LI’s grassroots training is something unique and we are very grateful for it.”

“We aim to mobilize students to be good leaders wherever they are,” Shanks said. “When we have 65 students excited and jazzed about what God can do through them, we are thankful. This week gave students the tools for action and involvement in the future.”

On the last evening, teens participated in a mock election where six presidential candidates with the help of their campaign staff gave speeches and answered questions from mock voters. The voters—LI staff—voted for Stephen Morrison, a 19-year-old from Savannah, Georgia who is a sophomore at Liberty University and a fourth year veteran at TeenPact.

“One of my goals is to run for office one day, and this week is an encouragement thing—it makes me realize that this is really doable,” Morrison said. The lecture on campaign literature was really helpful to him in learning how to design things like a door hanger. “It taught me how to think outside the box, to think creatively while also standing firm in my principles.”

For more information about TeenPact, please visit: http://www.teenpact.com

To request information about scheduling political training for teens at the Leadership Institute, please call: 202-247-2000.

-30-

>