Leadership Youth Programs

One goal of the Wilson Center is to provide educational opportunities for high school students in Southside Virginia.  There are many timely topics on state, national and international levels that may be of great interest and benefit to high school students, but in a rural area, it is not easy for students to "meet the experts." The Wilson Center aims to help these students acquire the skills and substantive knowledge that they will need to be thoughtful citizens and leaders by providing special programs for them and including them in selected programs offered to Hampden-Sydney students and the larger community.

Recent youth programs:

The students pictured were winners in the Global Democracy essay contest. (l-r) Dr. Jo Leslie Shaw (Dean, Fuqua), Alexandra Nash (Senior, Prince Edward), Jessie Hines (Senior, Fuqua), Amanda Favret (Freshman, Prince Edward), Rachel Hemler (Junior, Fuqua), Chelsea Parent (Freshman, Prince Edward), Sarah Terry (Farmville Area Chamber of Commerce), Thomas J. MacDonald (Coordinator of Gifted and Differentiated Education, Prince Edward).

• Conference America and the World: Sustaining Democracy in the Global Age, sponsored by Longwood University, with support by the Wilson Center, Hampden-Sydney College. Part of the Jamestown 400th Anniversary Commemoration; sessions held at both Longwood and Hampden-Sydney. Thursday - Saturday, 1/25-27. Area high school students were involved in an essay competition; over 60 students were guests for two luncheons, the second of which featured Congressman Lee Hamilton. Many also took advantage of the invitation from both colleges to attend conference panels, without registration fees.
  
  
• "An After-Action Report from Afghanistan" - Presented by the Fort Bragg Briefing Team, and Ms. Donatella Lorch, Newsweek Magazine. The Wilson Center invited area high school students to attend the program at Crawley Forum, Hampden-Sydney College, and afterwards arranged for the students to join the presenters for lunch and informal discussion. Details



• "European-American Relations" - a policy speech by Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to which high school students were invited. Prince Edward County High School brought 40 students.



• "Community Building and Conflict Resolution" - a presentation sponsored by the Wilson Center for high school students. Students from Prince Edward County High School and Fuqua School met at the Moton Museum for this presentation, the first civic education event in the recently dedicated facility. Details



• Presentation for high school students on the Human Genome Project, given in concert with a three-day symposium at Hampden-Sydney College



• Election watch party with Hampden-Sydney students, including on-going analysis by political science faculty throughout the evening



• Workshops to train high school teachers to teach the Bill of Rights and Constitution to high school students

Representative past programs:

• A special program held in conjunction with the Political Rhetoric Symposium in 1999, in which high school students attended a panel discussion of political campaign managers, moderated by a well-known area news anchor
• A program for high school students held in during the Shining Seas symposium in 1998
• A Fulbright scholar from the Czech Republic in residence for a semester to teach students from area high schools and Hampden-Sydney College. This group of students was introduced to some of the major economic and political challenges confronting Eastern Europe after the Cold War.

An After-Action Report from Afghanistan

Community Building and Conflict Resolution

Election Watch 2000

Human Genome Project Symposium

Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Hampden-Sydney College