Dozens of students from the LEADS Program at Kuss, Morton and Talbot Middle Schools in Fall River and Keith, Normandin and Roosevelt Middle Schools in New Bedford participated in the second Youth Civic Engagement Summit at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth on May 7, 2010. The Summit event capped off a year of service-learning projects that took place in the middle schools involving about 170 students. Students toured the campus in groups to learn what the University has to offer, participated in three service projects and received recognition awards for their work over the year. The Leadership for Educational Attainment Developed through Service (LEADS) program is designed to have UMass-Dartmouth students teach leadership to middle school students by conceptualizing and implementing community service projects. Click here and here for pictures of some of the projects in Fall River. Click here for photos of last year's Summit.  For more information about the event, contact Center for Civic Engagement Assistant Provost Matthew Roy or Deirdre Healy, Director of Service-Learning, at 508-999-8641. 
 

(Top row, left) Center for Civic Engagement Assistant Provost Matthew Roy welcomes the students to the University. (Top row, center) Candice Giunta and Tiffany Sousa wait while LEADS graduate student volunteer Nicole Moniz takes attendance. (Top row, right) LEADS coordinator Jarrad Plante outlines the schedule for the day. (Middle row, left) LEADS volunteers Robit Kankaliga gives students directions for the tour that will take them around the campus. (Middle row, center) Talbot Middle School Guidance Counselor David Graf talks with students about what the University has to offer as they move from building to building. (Middle row, right) Talbot students James Tenczar and Kyle Botelho walk with the group through one of the connecting hallways. (Bottom row, left) Students listen to UMass senior Suzy Martell as she describes the Writing Reading Center. (Bottom row, center) UMass junior Sara Lafleur helps Kayla Decosta of the Normandin Middle School with the answers to questions on an "Amazing Race" style quiz. (Bottom row, right) Morton Middle School student Patrick Leaver works on building birdhouses that will be donated to the middle schools or to the Norman Bird Sanctuary..