Alexia Baker
When Alexia Baker walked into the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Conference, she expected to learn a lot, not to have fun.
“I thought it was going to be us getting talked at,” said the Brookfield High School junior. “There were way more activities. It was better than my expectations.”
Yes, it was a leadership conference, but the major thrust of the conference seemed to be improving communication skills, “Like, how to communicate with other people to be a good leader,” Alexia told members of the Brookfield Rotary Club, which paid for her to attend. “It was really fun. They really put in the work to make sure it was good.”
The conference was held Feb. 7-9 at the Marriott Hotel in Canfield, and was hosted by the Salem Rotary. Alexia was chosen by Brookfield High school guidance counselor Lynn Pegg after extensive discussions with the student who attended last year, Yusef Abdul Rasoul.
Pegg said she wanted someone who would “embrace this experience and come back with positive information.”
Alexia, a cheerleader who also plays volleyball, did not know anyone else who attended, but the members of groups were changed regularly so she got to know many of the attendees.
The activities the students did were complicated. In one, a group of students had to build a tower with index cards, but the group members could not talk or make hand motions. They had 10 minutes to see who could build the largest tower. “That one was really fun,” said Alexia, who is on student council and belongs to the school’s Interact Club, a service club sponsored by Rotary International.
In another activity, students had to make a pattern with colored ping pong balls. “One of us was blindfolded and the other had to figure out a way to tell them the pattern without talking,” said Alexia, who is interested in radiology as a career.
The students were not allowed to have phones during the conference, something Alexia said she was initially nervous about.
“I feel like if I did have my phone it would have been really different, so I think it was better,” she said.
Alexia’s takeaway from the conference: “I know how to communicate better and ways to actually listen to others, instead of just focusing on what I want. It’s more of what’s best for everybody, and we focused on that.”
