Published: October 09, 2008 11:02 am      

Developing leaders

Academy seeks to help individuals get involved in the community

Security Federal’s Dan Hosler was one of 13 recent graduates of the inaugural Loganland Leadership Academy.

He had only recently moved to Cass County from Ohio, and he wanted to learn more about his new home.

“The biggest value was learning about our local community,” he said.

The academy helped him learn about Logansport and what it had to offer as a community, he said.

As a result of the classes, he said, he has become involved in different community service opportunities.

Another graduate was Elisa Banuelos-Cortes, the English as a new language home and school liaison for Logansport Community Schools. She signed up, she said, because she felt the academy would help her with her job.

“I thought it was going to be a great opportunity to know more about how to become a leader in the community, and I knew there would be more information to become a part of committees,” she said.

In her daily work, she said, she fields lots of phone calls from parents looking for opportunities available in Cass County. The academy has allowed her to answer those questions more effectively.

The academy, which graduated its first class last month, started a new class this week.

Co-sponsored by Logansport-Cass County Chamber of Commerce and Cass County Purdue Extension Office, the academy uses the Purdue University Curriculum known as I-Lead.

The nine-month program is designed to integrate personal leadership development skills as well as teach participants about Cass County, according to Brian Shafer, president of the chamber.

“The leadership academy is for emerging and existing leaders in our county,” added Penny Troutman, extension educator in consumer and family sciences.

She said the program is available for people who live or work in Cass County, to help them gain a better understanding of the community. She said participation in the class could also help students develop contacts.

This is not the first time the chamber has offered such an academy. Shafer said the chamber had sponsored such programs in the past, but not for the past three to five years.

“We have a lot of new energy and faces in the community and we felt several people were looking for this program to come back,” he said. “It was very successful in the past.”

The classes offer a variety of leadership topics including the nature of leadership, conflict management, creative thinking, strategic planning, interpersonal communication and a personality assessment test, said Shafer.

In addition to class time, the program is set up to alternate weeks. Members meet every other Tuesday for a four-hour class. One week is held in a classroom and the next class involves a tour.

The tours include a trip to the statehouse, a farming operation, local manufacturing facilities, historic buildings in the downtown area and Logansport Memorial Hospital.

“Many times, we try to apply what we learned in the classroom on the tour,” said Troutman. “It makes everything fit together nicely.”

In addition, the class members are divided into groups and are required to complete a project to benefit the community, Troutman said.

Shafer said the 13 students from the first academy left positive feedback about the program. He hopes to receive the same type of feedback from the nine current class members.

Troutman said she hoped the academy would continue.

“We did an evaluation after the last leadership academy and found that more people were willing to take on leadership roles or join an organization for a leadership position,” she said.

Denise Massie can be reached at (574) 732-5151 or via e-mail at denise.massie@pharostribune.com