STUDENTS from selected secondary schools in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, recently benefitted from a youth, arts empowerment programme organised by Chief (Dr) Atim Eneida George, in partnership with the Educare Trust.
Dr George is a retired senior Foreign Service officer who served as a United States diplomat accredited to the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 2002 to 2009.
In 2006, Dr George, who prefers to be called Dr G, was given the chieftaincy title, Yeye Araba of the Source by the then Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II, in recognition of her contributions to the development of the country.
While in Nigeria, she visited all the six geopolitical zones and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and worked tirelessly in the area of leadership development.
Dr George is currently in Nigeria as a Fulbright scholar, in partnership with her host institution, Lead City University, Ibadan, and is expected to mentor youths on leadership skills through arts, with the first being secondary school students in Ibadan.
According to Dr George, the primary objective of the programme is to promote critical thinking skills, self-reflection and creative expression, adding that these skills are essential for an empowered living in the 21st century.
She first started by encouraging the students to share their experiences of when they showed up with their positive attitudes; she shared hers by saying when she was 15, she was travelling from her home state of New Jersey to her school in another state and somewhere in New York, she found an elderly man had fallen and passersby ignored him, but she had to quickly rush to the man and assisted him to his feet.
Dr George said while she was doing that, others saw her and also came to assist her.
The students got the message and shared different instances where they had also displayed such positive attributes.
The facilitator also came up with different positive words and asked the students to pick the ones that best describe them.
The final section of the programme was the drawing workshop, where students were asked to draw a river, which connotes their journey through life.
At the end of the programme, there was increased awareness for the arts, as well as increased self-awareness and critical thinking.
