More Information about the
Intermediate School Leadership Course
at OELC
In the Intermediate School Leadership course the student chooses from a variety of workshops such as ‘Environmental action projects, Making a difference in my community, Speaking with confidence in front of others’. They will typically spend a morning period in these interactive workshops with embedded leadership discoveries and opportunities.
Specific leadership development sessions give students opportunities to explore various components of leadership: leadership styles, effective communication, group dynamics, problem-solving, organizational skills, and risk-taking in a non-threatening and encouraging environment and through well-planned experiential learning activities. OELC has a low ropes challenge course that is a rewarding and fun part of the leadership development sessions.
Opportunities for debriefing and reflection contribute greatly to the personal growth of students. Through the skilled facilitation of our teachers, often the greatest learning is reinforced through the analysis of elements which contribute to or detract from the success of an activity or challenge.
A typical day in the Intermediate School Leadership course might be:
| 7:45 | Breakfast |
| 9:15 | Youth Voice Workshops |
| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 1:45 | Leadership Development Session |
| 3:00 | Recreation |
| 4:15 | Special Guest/Activities |
| 5:45 | Dinner |
| 7:00 | Youth-led Panel Discussions |
| 8:15 | Special Evening Activity |
| 10:00 | Cabin Meeting |
| 10:15 | Lights Out |
Based on the principles of democratic education, all of the leadership courses at the Ontario Educational Leadership Centre enable youth to discover their full potential while developing skills to work towards a vision of a more just and vital school and community.
Each OELC course will:
- Engage and educate youth so that they can return to their schools and communities ready to make a positive difference;
- Maximize the potential of emerging leaders towards becoming responsible and participating citizens in their schools and beyond;
- Provide youth with the opportunity to develop connections with other young community leaders across Ontario;
- Create safe learning environments where the disposition and skills to dialogue across difference can be nurtured, where diversity is welcomed, conflict is accepted and negotiated, and critical questions are encouraged;
- Allow participants to gain new insights, examine learned behaviours, challenge biases and become empowered agents of change;
- Design opportunities for young people to imagine and create other possibilities for themselves and their world based on democratic principles of social justice and equity.
Part of the vision of the Ontario Educational Leadership Centre is reflected in the words of philosopher Maxine Greene:
We need spaces...for expression, for freedom...a public space...where living persons can come together in speech and action, each one free to articulate a distinctive perspective, all of them granted equal worth. It must be a space of dialogue, a space where a web of relationships can be woven, and where a common world can be brought into being and continually renewed (1984).