START (Students Taking Active Responsibility Today) is a youth leadership conference specifically designed for high school freshmen. Students from all over Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut attended this three day, residential conference at Nichols College in Dudley, Mass on May 19th - 21st. Rylee Marin '20 and Ishita Rai '20 represented Bay View Academy at this year's START conference.

The 4 major goals of the START Conference are to:

• Challenge students to learn to think positively;
• Enhance students' leadership skills;
• Provide the opportunity for students to meet other young leaders; and
• Motivate students to accept the challenge of leadership.

Here's what Rylee and Ishita had to say about their experience at the conference:

Rylee: Some things that I learned from the conference were multiple ways to show leadership without necessarily being in charge, or telling others what to do. There were many different activities that were based on a singular leadership skill, and we were able to put the certain skill to use in practical activities, while also working with others to complete the activity's goal or realize the lesson behind it. Overall, the conference used very diverse methods of teaching a variety of skills that affect how someone can apply leadership. There were many amazing speakers that taught different topics that all ended up tying into aspects that were important to properly implicate leadership in our communities.

Ishita: I really enjoyed the START Conference as it showed me many leadership skills and introduced me to lots of new friends. This program did pull me out of my comfort zone a little, but once I got used to it, it was definitely worth it. They taught us many of the 147 leadership skills and the entire weekend was packed with nonstop activities. I would recommend this program! Some Lessons I got out of START: 1) Learn to be comfortable when you're uncomfortable, 2) It's better to stand alone than to not stand up at all, 3) You can change the world by changing just one person's life.