Gateway sophomore Casey Pease. (Photo submitted)
HUNTINGTON – Casey Pease, a sophomore at Gateway Regional High School, completed the MassSTAR Citizenship Conference earlier this month, held at Lasell College in Newton, MA. The conference was sponsored by the Massachusetts Youth Leadership Foundation (MYLF), which seeks to recognize and empower outstanding high school students across the Commonwealth. One sophomore from every Massachusetts-accredited high school is invited to participate.
The 3-day conference included numerous talks with business and political leaders, along with workshops on leadership. MassSTAR’s (Massachusetts STudents Accepting Responsibility) theme this year was “Raise Your Voice”.
“I tend to raise my voice already.” Pease said. “But I watched others who at first seemed shy speaking up by the end.”
According to Pease, the best part of the conference was meeting all of the different students from all over the state. With only one student attending per school, most people didn’t know anyone else when they arrived. The conference started with an ice breaker to get everybody moving and talking. Teams of 8 students (representing different regions of the state) were announced, and went to the workshops and events together. “It was really smart to organize us this way. We all started bonding quickly.”
Pease reported that all of the workshops were related to leadership. His favorite, by far, was the ‘ice cream workshop’. Each student drew a card that represented a type of ice cream. Those with the same flavor of ice cream formed teams. Once grouped, each team was tasked with building an ideal community using paper and craft materials.
“When it came time to build, we noticed that two teams, ours and one other, were much smaller than the others. We had fewer materials and less space to build. People came to us and told us we could not start to build without getting permits. But when we went to get our permit, we were denied. Some of us were ‘arrested’. In the meantime, the other teams had plenty and were building away without having to get permits. It was so unfair and frustrating.” When they talked about it as a large group, it was revealed that students on the larger teams never even noticed that the two small teams were getting nowhere with their projects. Pease concluded that it was similar to real-life, and how things work for people who have a lot, compared to people who do not.
They also heard presentations from various volunteer organizations. One ran a project called “Birthday Wishes”. Each MassSTAR delegate had received a list of items to bring, and there were a few surprising things on those lists—like a birthday cake mix, birthday candles, wrapping paper, or gift items. Birthday Wishes provides gifts and celebration items to families of children who live in homeless shelters. As a group, the delegates put their items together and assembled 60 birthday boxes for the charity.
Pease recommended the conference for others in the future. “At first, I thought it would probably be boring,” Pease admitted. “But I realized quickly that it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
Casey is the son of Catherine and Thomas Pease of Worthington. He is the president of the Class of 2015.
