Daryl Clausen
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
Class of 2007
Kernersville, North Carolina

This summer, I was invited by the NSLC (National Student Leadership Conference) to attend a leadership workshop at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, from August 2 through August 6. I accepted the invitation and am very glad that I did.  The experience was awesome! At Duke University, we attended workshops, heard from guest speakers, created a community service project that we are to implement at home. The workshops included public speaking, goal setting, decision-making, conflict resolution, team building and motivation, stress management, and time management. We also attended a number of social activities.

The public speaking workshop helped improve my confidence in my ability to speak in front of my peers. The goal setting workshop helped people to set reasonable, attainable goals that could be accomplished with proper planning. For example, if I wanted to go to an Ivy League university, then I would have to stay focused in school, prepare well for my SATs, and participate and be very involved in some extracurricular activities. All of these workshops taught everyone attending something about themselves that they may not have known before.

My favorite part of this conference was creating the community service project. Everyone in my group was determined to make a difference within their community. We all finally came to rest on the topic of racism and prejudice. These issues can not be changed overnight and we all knew that it would be very difficult to make our communities hear what we have to say. So, we came up with the idea to write letters to the editor on how we were affected by prejudice and racism. Although we will not be out in our communities physically working to make a difference, our voices will be out there and will be heard on these issues that affect us all.

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