Kerrville, TX (August 31, 2021) – Three Kerrville ISD students spent time this summer developing leadership skills and gaining deeper knowledge of the state during a week-long Lone Star Leadership Academy Camp.

B.T. Wilson sixth graders Jayde Manuel and Emerson Wheatley and Hal Peterson Middle School eighth grader Ethan Farhoudi were nominated by their teacher and accepted into the camps held in different cities around the state. They were three of more than 700 students who participated in the camps, put on by Education in Action, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young people to be informed and active leaders in their communities.

“It was a learning experience on how to be a leader,” Farhoudi said. “I feel that I’ve become more responsible and can be of assistance to teachers and students here on campus.”

Farhoudi was placed in Galveston for his camp and got to see and learn about dolphin wildlife along with time spent at NASA.

“It was a fun experience,” Manuel said, who got to visit the Capitol and Alamo during her camp.

“I felt good about being nominated for this camp,” Wheatley said, who visited different museums.

During the weeklong, overnight camps, students developed leadership skills while learning about the state of Texas. Participants experienced what they are learning in school through visits to notable and historically significant Texas sites. 

Venues included places such as the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District, Perot Museum, and the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on the Dallas/Fort Worth program; the offices of participants’ state legislators at the Texas State Capitol, the Supreme Court of Texas, bat watching on the Lone Star Riverboat, and The Alamo on the Austin/San Antonio program; and NASA, a boat tour of Galveston Bay with a marine biologist, the San Jacinto Battleground Monument, and Moody Gardens on the Houston/Galveston program.

In addition, professionals at sites visited introduced students to a wide variety of unique careers during each camp.

The Lone Star Leadership Academy experience provides a unique opportunity for outstanding students to learn about Texas leaders and what it means to be from the Lone Star State. Participants discuss what they learn, complete problem solving and decision-making simulations, exercise creativity, and practice presentation skills in Leadership Groups.

HPMS 8th Grader Ethan Farhoudi 

BTW 6th Graders Jayde Manuel and Emerson Wheatley