Springtown student attends Lone Star Leadership Academy over the summer

The most memorable part of the camp for Abigail was visiting NASA and seeing the actual rockets that were blasted off into space.

“They were the real thing, and they rode in that, and it went up in space (and) came back,” she said.

Though Abigail’s career aspirations have nothing to do with space – but rather with wildlife conservation and world travel – she said space exploration is awesome, and she enjoyed the part of her trip when she got to view stars and planets through telescopes.

“They were so magnified. It was like they were right there in front” of her, she said.

According to a news release, Abigail was selected for the academy “based on her outstanding academic success, demonstrated leadership ability, involvement in school and community activities and a successful completion of a previous Lone Star Leadership Academy camp.” The camp is for students in grade levels fourth through eighth who have grade averages of 85 or higher, demonstrate leadership ability, are involved in community or school activities and receive a recommendation from an educator. 

Abigail thought it was special to be selected to go to the camp. She was able to attend last summer as well and traveled to Austin and San Antonio after being nominated by one of her teachers.

Abigail’s favorite part of the trip was being able to meet new people and bond with the friends she made during last year’s camp.

“Now I have so many friends from just everywhere,” she said.

When asked what she learned during the camp that was the most valuable, Abigail pointed to the discussions of leadership skills. In addition to seeing the sights, the camp included leadership groups in which the students examined qualities of effective leaders and practiced those skills, according to the news release.

Abigail described a good leader as “someone who is respectable, who respects others and can encourage them even if they’re kind of failing” as well as someone who is inclusive and has good ideas.

Next year, Abigail may be putting those leadership skills into action. She plans to join one of her friends at the Fort Worth camp next year as a youth facilitator. According to the website for Education in Action – the nonprofit that hosts the leadership camps – youth facilitators return to the camps to be mentors to the younger, first-time campers as well as to assist the adult facilitators and camp directors.