BRTC Hosts Leadership Paragould Class XXVI

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Front: Stryker, BRTC’s Mascot Front Row (L to R): Rhonda Stone, Erica Sluder, Ana Saucedo, Heather Mabry, Kirsten Ditto, Yong Ko, Charles Shank Back Row (L to R): Joseph Bland, Brittany Wright, Tiffany Duty, Kortney Reeves, Jamie Miller, Taylor Barrington, Amy Hall, Alyssa Blakeney, Justin Hurt, Lexi Butler, Flynn Willis, Trish Eubanks, Tori Livengood, Mike Chipman, Brandon Wren, Chris Warhurst, Tiffani Newsom, Ashley Sessoms, Ashley Graham, Mary Stormes, Amanda Robins, Mary Anderson, Adam Followell, and Jimmy Mason.

Black River Technical College hosted Leadership Paragould Class XXVI Friday, Dec. 9 at its Paragould campus.

Guest Speakers Amy and Tony Lucius discussed understanding behavior, and how to best work together. DISC behavior assessments were given and discussed. DISC is a tool that identifies behavior and can be used to help individuals discover themselves and their behavior in an effort to improve communication and in turn building a stronger team, according to tonyluciusspeaks.com.

The Community Development Institute of the University of Central Arkansas held a Poverty Simulation Workshop that allows those in leadership to put themselves in the shoes of the impoverished. The Community Action Poverty Simulation is an interactive, immersion experience. By roleplaying situations that are typical to the everyday struggle of the average person below the poverty line, leaders can find themselves making decisions based off of cues given by the simulation. For example, one cue is a young adult raising their siblings and another cue is grandparents raising their grandchildren with limited resources.

\”The goal of the simulation is to provide a glimpse into the structural barriers of poverty to transform participants perspectives about their own communities…to inspire action toward positive community change,” according to povertysimulation.net.

The simulation was followed by a tour of the BRTC Paragould campus.

Leadership Paragould is a yearlong program that aims at identifying existing and potential community leaders, providing training in various concepts of leadership, raising awareness of issues within the community and establishing solutions.

For more information about Leadership Paragould, contact Allison Hestand, Paragould Chamber of Commerce Director of Economic Development and CEO, at (870) 236-7684. For more information about BRTC’s programs and degrees, contact Priscilla Stillwell at (870) 239-0969, ext. 5101 or visit https://blackrivertech.org/.