SLIDESHOW – Every morning at 9:30 a.m. sharp Beth Anzalone, the program director for Western New York United’s Buffalo Summer Program, calls for the student-leaders’ attention by raising the hand on which she wears her Leadership band featuring the NFL Players logo. Just like an NFL team starts a practice to prepare them with skills for Sunday’s big game, these promising students begin each day of the summer program by holding their NFL players leadership bands in the air, reminding them that they are leaders getting ready for the big game of life.
These incoming seventh graders at Buffalo Public and Cleveland Hill School spend 5 weeks during the summer at Medialle College campus. In this program the seeds of leadership are planted for these students to begin watering their goals to bloom into achievers who dream big. They get the opportunity to see a college up close and personal, most for the first time. Here the prevention specialist advisors begin teaching the students life skills including how to budget, write checks, use credit cards, apply for jobs and practice interviewing for jobs. They learn everything from broadening their vocabulary to writing short stories, persuasive essays and having emotion-filled poetry slams.
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One of the main goals of the program is to help the student-leaders begin building character traits to lay foundations of respect, responsibility, and self esteem. They practice an abundant amount of public speaking, they learn the importance of getting along with various personalities, and how beneficial teamwork can be. The girls and boys get split up for part of the day. The girls learn about body image, healthy relationships, and the glass ceiling. The boys learn about stereotypes, what it means to be a man and how to tie a tie. During the program they explore career options that relate to their passions and they ultimately understand that the most successful people are setting goals for themselves every day.
It’s obvious that these children are surrounded by a staff of adults that care about them enough to begin preparing them to be a step ahead of their peers. The students at the end of summer realize the meaning of having “s.w.a.g” in life. The students helped come up with an acronym for this popular term, it means “Sweating, Working, Achieving Goals.” Like the swag displayed by the NFL players they aspire to emulate, the students learn what it means to take responsibility and leadership in their own lives despite where they are from or the obstacles they face in Buffalo, the fourth poorest city in the United States.
Efrain, a student from the Buffalo Public School 18, admits that being a leader is harder than being a follower especially on the westside of Buffalo. “So many people try to bring you down. Regardless of what others think, being a leader is showing them that I’m tring to make it to the NFL. If they watch me they’ll see that the only things I’m going to follow is the rules, the law and my dreams,” Efrain explains. Sometimes he sits and thinks about what it will take to make it in football and in life. He has realized over the past 5 weeks in this summer program that it could all start here for him as leader. Only a 6th grader going into 7th grade, he now can understand what it takes to stand out and wants to try to be the best. Along with 120 other students who have teamed up with Official Signature Products, Efrain has been wearing his leadership band for the past 25 days. This wrist reminder is a tangible symbol of the leadership it will take in order to fulfill his goals.
Efrain recognizes that the leadership bands don’t just symbolize making it in professional football but any career options him and his classmates can achieve with leadership skills. Whether it’s a businessman, teacher, a doctor, an engineer or even a NFL player, leadership qualities will allow them to be the star quarterback in their own lives, calling all the plays to scoring success.
