Where does leadership come from? For Jelani, many lessons of leadership, communications skills, and business, came from attending and working at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta’s Camp Kiwanis in Madison County, GA. Jelani joined the Warren Boys and Girls Club when he was 11, and started attending camp the summer thereafter. Since then, he has contributed many hours to developing as a camp counselor and instructor, growing his leadership skills, and helping others to succeed.
Camp gave him the opportunity to try challenging new activities – like kayaking and archery – that he wouldn’t get to experience at home. Camp also helped Jelani develop his leadership and job skills, through the LINK leadership program (Leaders in Nature’s Kingdom), mentoring from older campers, and through a progression of camp jobs that exposed him to camp operations, management, and being a counselor to younger campers.
Jelani is a compassionate and caring leader – one of his favorite things about camp is “Debrief”, the time at the end of the day that the campers and counselors reserve to talk through the issues that are affecting them.
Jelani credits Camp Kiwanis, and the people who mentored him there, with helping him to develop into the leader he is today. Jelani hopes to attend University of Georgia or Valdosta State University and major in sports management, and pursue a career in team management in the NBA.
To learn more about our programs at Camp Kiwanis, visit out Camp Kiwanis page.