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June 16, 2005 By JAY PATEAKOS Herald News Staff Reporter DARTMOUTH -- While dozens of area high schools and colleges are taking part in their own graduation ceremonies, the first crop of future leaders to come out of the year-old Leadership SouthCoast (LSC) Program are set for their very own commencement ceremony at the end of the month. Leadership SouthCoast, in conjunction with the Corporate Programs and Partnerships at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and the Fall River and New Bedford area Chambers of commerce s, is a non profit organization established in 2004 with the intent of strengthening individuals in the community who will then take what they have learned and experienced and go on to serve in committees and boards in their own local areas. Selected participants from the 2004-2005 class took part in a 10-month program consisting of a two-day retreat, and nine monthly full-day sessions that included a series of structured small group team building experiences. The projects included a mentoring program for middle school students, leading a positive change to the economic environment of Fall River and New Bedford, artistic recycling technologies and a community preservation team. "The strength of this program was in bringing together a group of people that we would not get to meet in our normal work life," said LSC participant Joan Mederios, vice president of Fall River Five s Commercial Services Division. Mederios team would include a college dean of enrollment services, a New Bedford school teacher and a chief financial officer, among others. As part of the Leadership SouthCoast s monthly gatherings, all 26 participants were able to tour the Massachusetts State House, ride the commuter rail and meet with Governor Mitt Romney and voice to him what s important for the Fall River and New Bedford area in person. "These people were able to ride the rail and see the inconvenience of driving to Middleboro to take the rail and how important it would be to have the rail in the Southcoast," said Tony Vieira, executive director of UMass Corporate Programs and Partnerships. "In some cases, some of these people had never even been on a train before." "After the rail trip, I was more enlightened as to why we need it in the Fall River/New Bedford area," Medeiros said. "It (the rail) would be a huge improvement on the quality of life for many people in our area." Other areas of major impact to the area discussed with the governor also included the proposal for building a Route 24 interchange that would allow the construction of a new Fall River Executive Park, that would create an estimated 8,000 jobs along with it One particular aspect of the program is to encourage these emerging leaders to join together to broaden their understanding of the impact of their decisions on southeastern Massachusetts and its future. Although the groups included such local business leaders as Kenneth Fiola, Jr. of the Fall River Office of Economic Development and Anthony Cordeiro of Anthony F. Cordeiro Insurance Agency, they were also complimented by such rising local stars as Scott Costa, co-owner of Bufftree Building Co. and New Bedford mayoral candidate and former UMass special assistant to the Chancellor, Matt Morrissey. "The advantages of the program is that a good majority of the group are already involved in the community, but what we saw (throughout the 10 months) made us view things very differently," said Steven Ozug, dean of enrollment services for Bristol Community College. One example Ozug gave was in the groups travel to the State House, a place he himself had frequented dozens of times as part of his job. "I saw the state house visit on our schedule of events and I felt that the visit would not be beneficial to me," Ozug said. "But the visit forced me to go outside my current realm and the experience was completely different for me, and that is the same thing that happened to me every month." Newcomer to the area, 27-year-old Holy Family Holy Name school teacher and Iowa-native Christina Rudd said she was initially intimidated by the who s who of the business world that made up a good number of people in the group. "I was just one teacher, the youngest in the group at 27, who had never owned my own business, grouped with a president, a CEO, a president and another CEO," Rudd said. "I joined this group because I love this area, and I wanted to explore how we can make something good happen here in the community instead of holding people back." Another component of the LSC group is in helping to change the mentality that has plagued the Whaling and Spindle Cities for decades: that it s residents and those that live in the outlying towns that believe that nothing good can ever come from either city. "They (the people in the area) are like fans of a losing football team. They love the team but they also hate the team," Rudd said. "We need to change that." "We don t realize the hidden gem we have here and we need to preserve this area," Medeiros said. Ozug sees the negativity as a sort of "selective pride", he said, where people care for certain areas of towns and cities and don t have the same pride in other areas of those same towns and cities. Why? "There are so many riches that we keep hidden and don t appreciate as much as we should and it s up to us as a community to change that," Ozug said. "The image (of the area) needs to be elevated by everyone and not in just selected places, but everywhere. It must be a community effort in order for it to work." The 26 participants of the first Leadership SouthCoast will be graduating on June 29 at the UMass Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center. Most LSC members have already received dozens of offers to serve on committees and non-profit organizations, in addition to the ones many of them already serve on. Applications for the second year of Leadership SouthCoast program are being accepted until June 30. The cost of the program is $4,000 and financial aid is available, although businesses are urged to sponsor a worker by providing $3,700 of the total bill. Vieira said that the second year program will kick off with a two-day retreat on September 8 and 9 and will continue with Wednesday meetings each month until June, 2006. For more information, call Nancy Vanasse at 508-999-8778 or on the Web at nvanasse@umassd.edu. <=== back a page / back to top |