Jonny Skye-Njie Youth Opportunities coordinator, Providence The Providence District-Wide Student Government (DWSG) is one of the student leadership development structures directed by Jonny Skye-Njie, the Youth Opportunities Facilitator for the Providence School Department. DWSG began in the spring of 2003 when the superintendent in Providence proposed a district-wide student council that would offer voice and choice to teenagers. The council was charged with the task of identifying the needs of students and schools.

The council meets monthly with the superintendent and four times a year in the City Council Chambers. The DWSG is made up of 55 students elected from 11 high schools in Providence.

DWSG is part of the Student Leadership Program that grew out of the Wellness Initiative and with generous funding from the Carnegie Corporation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The program’s goal is to build leadership capacity in young people, faculty, and administrators so that students become equal partners in the functioning and reform of their schools.

“The students elected in the first year of the program did not necessarily fit the traditional stereotype of a student leader. For example, five were
parents.”

The student population in Providence high schools is culturally and ethnically diverse. Over 42 languages are spoken by the district’s 7,000 students. All students in the district have the opportunity to seek a place on the DWSG and to vote for candidates. Mrs. Skye-Njie noted that the students elected in the first year of the program did not necessarily fit the traditional stereotype of a student leader. For example, five were parents.

The DWSG began its year with a three-day retreat for the five officers from each school. During the retreat, the students formed a strong community and developed mechanisms for maintaining the connections among them. There was collective problem solving and the students brokered agreements to support collaborative working relationships with one another, school-based teams, advisors, faculty, and principals/directors.
At the end of the retreat, students completed evaluations of the experience. These evaluations showed the following:
• 98% said they had learned skills that would help them become effective leaders.
• 96% said they had made connections and formed a community.
• 91% said that they connected to an adult who they felt they could go to in the future for support.
• 89% said they learned to anticipate obstacles and were able to problem solve collectively.
• 95% said that they had created action plans and were committed to at least one specific action.

The DWSG also organized a Learning Support Fair that offered a range of support and services to high school students and their families. The fair took place at the R.I. Convention Center and featured informational materials from 57 local groups including the AIDS Project in RI, Jobcorps, Literacy Volunteers, the RI Mentoring Partnership, and the Women’s Center of R.I.

“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.”
- John W. Gardner