Student Leadership Workshop

Today is our last day of Education Beyond Borders workshops in Tanzania and we are wrapping up by holding a student leadership seminar. We have twenty six students attending: four students from four of the five secondary schools (Form 1 - Form 4 or grades 8-11) and 9 class or grade 7 students from nine of the thirteen primary schools.

We have had a full day of activities designed to examine the different types of leaders: democratic, bureaucratic, charismatic and autocratic, discuss the qualities of a good leader and leaders we admire. The students were also asked to design a "Dream Journal" which depicts their personal leadership style and ideas along with writing their first journal entry "What is something in your school you would like to do to make a positive change?" The students just finished working in in groups: secondary students with their schools and the class sevens together to plan a GAME plan on making change in their schools.

The day was planned through a variety of activities such as carousel, jigsaw, energizers and icebreakers as well as evaluation of the workshop. Fortunately we've had the help of four teacher facilitators: Edward, Jess, Faustin and Happyness to support the students through translation, working with them in small group activities and answering questions. The secondary students are instructed in English at school but the class seven students are instructed in Kiswahili. When we established our community agreement this morning we agreed that everyone would use their language of comfort.

Most of the students here are the head students in their grade level. They have many responsibilities in their schools including leading students in school/student discussions and presenting their concerns to school staff, being responsible for the other students who have school duties and stepping in when teachers are absent.We hope the students felt that the day was worthwhile and they will gain new ideas to help make change in their classes, schools and communities. We felt that the day was successful and we're already thinking of how we will prepare the workshop for next year.