Leadership SouthCoast Program honors 18 graduates of 2008 class

Chronicle.SouthCoastToday.com
By ROBERT BARBOZA
Editor
July 2, 2008

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Photo Details -- MR. CHAIRMAN: James Mathes, Chair of the Board of Directors of Leadership SouthCoast (LSC), welcomed the 18 graduates and guests attending the 2008 commencement exercises at UMass Dartmouth last week. To his right is Rev. David Lima, Program Chair for the leadership program. PHOTO BY MARY-LEE BARBOZA/The Chronicle

DARTMOUTH -- In the interests of full disclosure, I must immediately confess to being one of the 18 graduates who attended the Class of 2008 Leadership SouthCoast commencement exercises at UMass Dartmouth's Woodland Commons last Wednesday.

Like every other graduate, I was thrilled when the special assignment photographer got a nice snapshot of the editor in a nice suit, standing between the smiling Attorney General and popular Westport State Representative, Michael Rodrigues, holding his diploma.

It stands as proof of 10 months of commitment to Leadership SouthCoast (LSC) , an idea to launch a program through UMass Dartmouth's Division of Professional and Continuing Education to start building a solid corps of community-minded current and future leaders for the South Coast, a region stretching from Seekonk to Wareham.

Based on similar, successful leadership-building programs in other states, LSC participants attend day-long seminars on education, health care, the criminal justice system, state government, the media, and more; area legislators, police chiefs, prison guards, attorneys, and emergency room staffers were the guest lecturers in our classrooms.

Field trips included a ride on commuter rail to visit to the State House for a chat with Lt. Gov. Murray and lunch with Rep. Roderigues and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, and both houses of the legislature; a tour of the inside of the Bristol County House of Corrections; dialogue with editors and publishers on the future of media at the Standard-Times; visits to cardiac centers and emergency rooms, ocean technology research centers and submersible vehicle workshops.

The program was 10 months of gathering information on collective problems, forming teams to search for regional answers to some of those concerns, developing projects and partnerships aimed at building coalitions to create positive changes in the South Coast— initiatives ranging from promoting sustainable agriculture in cities and suburbs (my team's project was on promoting community gardens); attracting new voices to public service boards of directors; increasing local training programs to offset nursing shortages; organizing leaders of color to better represent their communities; fighting unacceptable high school drop-out rates in our schools.

Only five years ago, the program was just an idea. Now, nearly 100 graduates have completed Leadership SouthCoast, noted Chairman of the Board of Directors James Mathes, president of the SMILES mentoring initiative. Under the leadership of UMass Dartmouth executive director of Corporate Programs and Partnerships Dr. Antone Vieira, Jr. and his staff, the program is making a difference in many areas, Mr. Mathes suggested.

Commencement speaker State Attorney General Martha Coakley urged this year's graduates to join past alumni in using their new-found knowledge and team skills to continue to benefit their communities. "Build on the skills you have learned, and use them to bring people together in your community and workplace to accomplish their common goals," she told the class.

LSC Program Chair Rev. David Lima introduced the class' representative speaker, newly-appointed Westport High assistant principal Michael Roy. Mr. Roy cited each of the 10 months' assignments as contributions to the vast pool of information about the economy, government, health care, educational attainment, and culture of the South Coast participants experienced this year.