The Gateway Regional High School student, who will be the president of his class as a junior this fall, said his favorite leadership workshop by far was the ice cream workshop.
HUNTINGTON - Casey Pease, a sophomore at Gateway Regional High School, completed the MassSTAR Citizenship Conference held at Lasell College in Newton in June.
The conference was sponsored by the Massachusetts Youth Leadership Foundation, which seeks to recognize and empower outstanding high school students across the commonwealth. One sophomore from every Massachusetts-accredited high school is invited to participate.
Pease will enter his junior year in September.
The three-day conference included numerous talks with business and political leaders, along with workshops on leadership. MassSTAR's (Massachusetts STudents Accepting Responsibility) theme this year was "Raise Your Voice."
"I tend to raise my voice already," Pease said, adding, "But I watched others who at first seemed shy speaking up by the end."
According to Pease, the best part of the conference was meeting all of the different students from all over the state. With only one student attending per school, most people didn't know anyone else when they arrived. The conference started with an ice breaker to get everybody moving and talking. Teams of eight students (representing different regions of the state) were announced, and went to the workshops and events together. "It was really smart to organize us this way. We all started bonding quickly."
Pease reported that all of the workshops were related to leadership. His favorite, by far, was the ice cream workshop at which each student drew a card that represented a type of ice cream. Those with the same flavor of ice cream formed teams. Once grouped, each team was tasked with building an ideal community using paper and craft materials.
"When it came time to build, we noticed that two teams, ours and one other, were much smaller than the others. We had fewer materials and less space to build. People came to us and told us we could not start to build without getting permits. But when we went to get our permit, we were denied. Some of us were 'arrested.' In the meantime, the other teams had plenty and were building away without having to get permits. It was so unfair and frustrating."
Pease recommends the conference for others in the future. "At first, I thought it would probably be boring," Pease admitted, "but I realized quickly that it was one of the best things I've ever done."
He is the son of Catherine and Thomas Pease, of Worthington, and serves as the president of the Class of 2015.