East Woods School 8th Graders Choose to Support Pal-O-Mine in a Yearlong Leadership Project

East Woods School eighth graders chose Pal-O-Mine, which provides a comprehensive therapeutic equine program to children and adults in Islandia, as the organization they'd support in a yearlong project for their Leadership Program. The program was modeled on Leadership Huntington, a local program for adults based on a national leadership organization designed to develop community leaders. The students chose Pal-O-Mine after participating in a daylong dismounted equine leadership program based on Sean Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, their summer reading assignment and after hearing from the executive directors of seven other local, national, and international non profit organizations. Pal-O-Mine uses horses to facilitate growth, learning, and healing. 

Other components of the program for the students included completion of an underwater robotics program that included programming and engineering remotely operated vehicles; a formal multi-course etiquette training dinner at the home of the Head of School; participation in a student leadership inventory to understand their leadership traits and how best to leverage them to achieve an objective within the group; a tour of the Cradle of Aviation Museum to learn about the aviation industry on Long Island which included a talk from the CEO of Transaero and his path to leadership; and learning from a professional fundraiser how to solicit, document, and thank donors for gifts.