Group develops global training programme for African students

The need to hone the leadership skills of African students through global learning experiences and opportunities has been stressed.

Founders of Hudson Valley Adventures (HVA), a United States- organisation designed to develop leadership skills of youngsters, observed that in the contemporary world, students must receive quality leadership training and international exposure to be able to attain loftier heights.

With this recognition, the founders, Dr. Dionne Olamiju and Mr. Segun Olamiju, said HVA leadership training programme was designed to hone leadership skill for children between age 12 to 17 who are currently enrolled in school from the continent of Africa.

According to them “HVA programme is designed to develop the leadership skills in our participants through the philosophy of the experiential learning theory, which emphasises the significance of sensory experience in the learning process as opposed to teacher-centered instruction or learning by rote. Accordingly, our programme consists of strategically selected exciting visitations including college tours and stimulating leadership skill building workshops.

“As the global village continues to shrink due to social media connectivity and the World Wide Web (WWW), there is the urgent need to access global opportunities, especially for students from Africa. As a result of several factors, including political, economic and cultural, our African scholars are not consistently offered the opportunity to cultivate the leadership skills pertinent for global competiveness.

“This was why HVA programme was designed to address. Upon acceptance to our programme, we will issue acceptance letters to parents for submission to the American Embassy for the issuance of visas should the participants require an entry visa to the United States. Since the tuition includes round trip airfare, our participants will travel as a group, accompanied and supervised by our HVA staff.”

The duo said all HVA leadership training activities are aligned with the leadership curriculum and will be taught by New York State certified educators, including the founders and other leaders from various disciplines, adding that all participants will receive consistent supervision at all times since student to teacher ratio was uniquely low.

On how the programme will run, he said, “We are presently receiving interests from parents from different parts of Africa. However, because our goal is to provide a meaningful experience for each participant, we have purposely created two 15-night sessions with enrolment vacancies for only 50 participants and we are currently enrolling applicants. Our website: www.hvadventures.net.