On April 19 and 20, 2011, DeSales University and Kids of Character will be hosting their second annual Youth Leadership and Ethics Conferences. The first day will be for eighth-grade students and the second day will be for high school juniors. These conferences will be modeled after the same type conferences which have been held in Berks County and sponsored by the Berks County Rotary Clubs for the last several years. Our 1st Annual Lehigh Valley Youth Leadership & Ethics Conferences held in March of 2010 at DeSales University were a big success! Ten school districts send 8th grade students to the first day of the conference and 10 school districts sent 11th grade students to the second day. We had 59 students and 19 faculty members the first day and 59 students and 20 faculty members the second day.

Each school district will be allowed to bring six students and two faculty members (often guidance counselors) for each of the days. With the sponsorship of the Rotary International Clubs there will be no cost to the school for sending their students and faculty.

The purpose of the conferences is to motivate both students and faculty to pursue the development of competence and character within their own schools and throughout their lives as they aspire to be citizens of competence and character in society. In the first century BC, Cicero stated that, "Within the character of its citizens lies the welfare of the state."

For the junior high conference, we hope to have a West Point Cadet as the keynote speaker. Students will then be broken up into 3 groups and will rotate in and out of concurrent sessions. The sessions will focus on 1) Leadership and Character, 2) Appreciating Differences, and 3) Teamwork and Communication.

The senior high conference will feature Dr. Len Marella as the keynote speaker. Dr. Marella is a graduate of West Point, president of the Center for Leadership and Ethics, and author of In Search of Ethics. He will speak on "The Power of Character". Students will then be broken into discussion groups headed by DeSales University PACERs. These are DeSales students who run the DeSales Character U program for freshmen. PACERs will begin with team-building activities and then introduce students to the concept of "Value." Students will identify and discuss their own values.

Using short stories (vignettes), with moral-ethical implications, PACERs will challenge the students to discover the moral and ethical issues, suggest how these might be resolved, and develop a plan for redressing the problems(s). Successful resolution of ethical dilemmas will require "critical thinking, moral reasoning, and values-based decision making."

Upon completion of these exercises, PACERs will summarize the "lessons learned." Students will explain how they can use "Values-Based" decision-making in their schools and social lives. In this manner they can contribute to the development of both competence and character in themselves and in others.

PACERs have been chosen to interact with students at the conferences because they teach values to DeSales freshmen throughout the year and are expected to live by the DeSales honor code. Because the PACERs are just a few years older than the students themselves, they can easily build a rapport with the students and relate to the types of ethical dilemmas the students could face. Students are very comfortable opening up to the PACERs to discuss their own thoughts on leadership and ethics.

On both days, while the students are in their sessions, we will hold a workshop on character education for the educators accompanying the students. We are very excited to be holding these conferences in the Lehigh Valley for the second year. Feedback for the 2010 conferences was extremely positive, both from the students and faculty:

8th Grade Students
What are some of the most important points you learned today?
    Your silence is consent
    To be the one who steps out when someone is being bullied
    To be a leader with character

8th Grade Faculty
What are some of the most important points you learned about character education today?
    How character education can be integrated into daily curriculum
    Lack of time doesn't mean you can't do character development
    Adults must be the role models -- everyone included

11th Grade Students
What are the most important points you will take away from this experience?
    Character can develop no matter who you are
    It is up to you to decide your character, actions and decisions
    Make decisions based upon what I believe, not what others attempt to persuade me
    to do

11th Grade Faculty
What are the most important points you will take away from this experience?
    Remember to educate the whole student
    Importance of incorporating character development to improve school culture
    Talking to my students more using terms like values and character

We hope you can join us at DeSales when we bring this opportunity back for students and educators in the Lehigh Valley. Email Gwen Pongracz at gwen.pongracz@gmail.com if you plan to have student and/or faculty attend.