On October 26th we hosted our first Camp 5-Star. It was a one-day event held at Murrieta Valley High School in Murrieta, CA. The 120 attendees represented 14 high schools and middle schools from Southern California.
Our keynote speaker was Roger Martin, Senior Vice President and Chief IP Strategist at Qualcomm, Inc. He spoke with the students about the importance of open minded thinking when it comes to new ideas. He regaled the crowd with stories of his involvement with the invention of “airplane mode” and the “camera phone”. Students were left with the advice that to maximize student involvement, they will need to think out of the box and be open to new and different ideas.
In addition to the keynote, we held two breakout sessions. In the first session, 5-Star Students’ co-founder Brian Bourgeois facilitated “5-Star 101”. He covered everything from the program basics, common questions and pitfalls, and a discussion of future enhancements. Brian even demonstrated one exciting new concept, utilizing iBeacon technology with 5-Star Students.
In the other session, co-founder Greg Hroch talked about student inclusion. He introduced several new activities and events that he’s observed during interactions with schools throughout the country. Another focus was on the need to use out-of-the-box thinking to come up with new ideas and rewards for participation. Students were encouraged to continuously evaluate student interests to seek out new and unique methods for getting people involved.
At our closing session, students and advisors were encouraged to share their best ideas with the group. Several student leaders stood up and provided the crowd with some unique concepts that work well at their school.
Our closing speaker was Don Skaggs, activities director at Great Oak High School. Don spoke about the critical importance of getting students involved and how he currently uses 5-Star Students as a tool to find those individuals that are not participating.
As a whole, the day was a huge success. We hope to schedule more Camp 5-Star events in other regions this school year. We are currently looking into events in both Northern California and the Chicago area. Please let us know if you are interested in hosting a Camp 5-Star event at your school!
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