Lake County >> Three crew members from Sea Scout Ship Konocti Phoenix recently graduated from the Sea Scout Experience Advanced Leadership training program (SEAL). The three are Seth Travis, Keha Maldonado and Justin Hingston.
The SEAL training program is designed to teach leadership skills while underway. SEAL is designed to jumpstart the junior leaders of new ships and to fine tune leaders of experienced ships. It is a hardcore, physically and mentally demanding, and remarkably rewarding hands-on leadership experience. New and experienced Sea Scouts can succeed at SEAL as long as they are willing to learn and work hard at preparation.
This course is designed to develop leadership skills in young adults. Seamanship is the medium through which the course is taught; however nautical skills are the means, not the end. This course, which utilizes an “at sea” experience as a laboratory, is intended to teach and apply leadership skills. There are few other media offering the opportunity for young people to actually put leadership skills utilizing group dynamics into practice. In SEAL, there is no “play acting”. All situations and tasks are real, not created. Bad decisions or team failure can produce immediate and real problems. This week-long “at sea” experience allows the student to learn and apply new skills immediately. Courses consist of five to seven youths with a course skipper and two instructors. Each instructional module relates to a specific leadership skill with exercises designed to show mastery of the concepts taught while under the leadership of the boatswain of the day. SEAL is not a seamanship course. All applicants are expected to have basic seamanship and navigation skills prior to arrival.
SEAL candidates are chosen from applications submitted from all over the country; there are only five locations where this training is provided. Pictured crew members were sent to different locations from Newport Beach,California to Galveston,Texas to Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.
By the end of the course, graduates are equipped with leadership skills and management tools necessary to fire up a ships program. They are prepared to serve in leadership positions such as boatswain, boatswain mate in their ships as well as leadership in their schools, jobs and communities. In short, these crewmembers are ready for their future to assist in programs like Sea Scouts and in their communities.
For Information about the Sea Scout Ship Konocti Phoenix and their activities, call 263-5235.
