Future Leaders Program aims to shape young West Virginians

KINGWOOD, W.Va. (WBOY) — Dozens of students from five high schools across four West Virginia Counties visited Kingwood on Wednesday to learn leadership skills from the West Virginia National Guard (WVNG).

The students participated in the WVNG’s Future Leaders Program (FLP) at the Mountaineer Challenge Academy Headquarters at Camp Dawson. The competition emphasizes the skills students learn throughout the year in the program such as the importance of teamwork, leadership, and self-confidence.

“Our goal is just to make sure that they’re prepared when they get out of high school so it’s truly a leadership program designed to help young men and women succeed in life after high school,” FLP State Director Deborah Patterson said.

The competition features eight categories that test skills the students learn throughout the year, including citizenship, leadership, physical fitness and CPR—which they can get certified for.

“Just to give the kids something to compete in and have the opportunity to walk out with a streamer. Whether it’s in FLP knowledge, citizenship, leadership,” Patterson said.

The program is designed to be four years long and is open to grades nine through 12, though students can opt to just do one year. Although the program is run by the state’s National Guard, FLP is not recruitment into military life according to Patterson, but rather a resource that students can use to gain life skills.

“We actually taught them one day how to change the oil in the car, just different things, skills that they’re going to need throughout their lifetime that they might not necessarily get at home or in regular school classrooms,” Brooke High School FLP Instructor Sgt. Katlynn Nagy said.

Nagy added that Brooke County struggles a lot with the drug epidemic and that the program is trying to help kids have the tools to make good decisions.

Tucker County High School sophomore Nate Ricottilli participated in the FLP competition for the first time this year and told 12 News that the school’s FLP has helped. “It’s helped me most just kind of understanding what I really want to do in the real world, just like having those goals set.”

Sophie Diaz, a senior from Brooke High School, has been in the program since her sophomore year and said that it will help her in her future goals. “It helps me with in regards to how I communicate with other students who maybe come from different backgrounds.”

Although historically programs like these are male-dominated, the FLP encourages all to participate regardless of gender, and bridges that gap by having instructors that students can see themselves. Sgt. Nagy told 12 News that being a woman in a male-dominated field has been hard at times and required her to work even harder to prove herself, but that it’s been worth it.

To learn more about FLP you can go here .

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