Coming up next on Learning Curve, we're talking youth leadership.

We'll highlight the Blazer Academy from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and the junior leadership program of Santa Rosa County.

It's building tomorrow's local leaders.

Next all night.

Welcome to learning curve.

This month, we're talking about youth leadership and some incredible programs in our area that aim to build our local leaders of tomorrow.

Before we get to our conversation with Sheriff Chip Simmons, let's take a look at the Escambia County Sheriff's Office blazer Academy, which is shaping confident and capable young minds.

At a recent reunion of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, Blazer Academy's male alumni.

The room was full of young men who completed the program, a program where they learn some of the foundations of leadership and respect.

The Blazer Academy, for both young men and women, aims to be a launchpad for future leaders in our community.

We initially started with a version for boys because it was the brainchild of the sheriff, you know, harkening back to his days as a football coach and realizing that when you had an opportunity to speak with young men, you can impart some wisdom other than just the next play that was going to be called On the field and talking to those who have been through the program, it's clearly making a difference.

Learning how to talk in front of people.

I was kind of kind of sad a little bit before I came to program, and be more responsible for my actions and just be more mature.

It's something that taught me a lot of stuff on this program.

I was just getting my haircut today, and I. Ferguson sat down, said, how are you?

Took all that up from the Blazer Academy, to be honest.

The Male Academy covers topics not frequently covered in traditional schooling things like proper dining etiquette, tying a tie, introducing yourself, and shaking hands.

Other life skills like financial planning and problem solving are also covered.

The goal is to build confidence and prepare these young minds for real world challenges, and Blazer Academy organizers and instructors know it's making a difference.

Things when we see them in public.

I think that's the greatest thing.

We see them at the mall or we see them at the fair or whatever, and they come up and they shake our hands and they reach out.

And that's kind of one of the things that we teach them.

Day one.

Right.

Shake a man's hand.

Look him in the eye and say that you're proud to know them, those types of things.

And that's what they do.

They see us in public.

Also, they reach out to us.

They reach back out to the sheriff's office.

They say, hey, I have a friend that may have a problem.

Can you come and talk with them?

And the lessons, big and small, are definitely having an impact.

I knew how to shake a hand, but I didn't know how important it was.

And so they told me that a first impression is a lasting impression.

So it is a lot of basic needs that I didn't know before I came in.

And they help me learn to with the success of the male version one year after its launch in 2021, it became clear to the sheriff and his team that a Blazer Academy for young women needed to be at it, and speaking with him and helping in more of an advisory capacity, I said, you know, it might be a great opportunity if we could offer this for the young ladies.

I think the topics would be different.

And so we spent a lot of time initially talking about the difference in 13 and 14 year old males and 13 and 14 year old females.

And while some of the lessons from the blazer Academy are universal, creating one for young ladies meant there would be some differences to some of those universal truths stayed the same.

You know, young ladies still need to know how to shake a hand.

They need to know how to introduce themselves and have eye contact and speak to a crowd.

But maybe the way that we approach dating violence, that topic is going to be a little bit different.

You know, maybe the way that we approach, you know, meeting somebody's parents for the first time might be a little bit different.

You know, between the ages of 13 and 15, those boys or girls accepted to the program meet every Tuesday evening from 530 to 730 for six weeks, immersed in an environment that provides mentorship and interaction.

Each two hour session includes role playing scenarios designed to build interpersonal skills and confidence.

The Academy provides dinner, transportation, and custom fitted dress attire for each of the 25 students accepted procession, culminating in a formal graduation ceremony.

Joining me now to talk about the Blazer Academy and what it means to be a young leader in Escambia County is Sheriff Chip Simmons.

Sheriff Simmons, thank you very much for coming.

And we certainly appreciate your time.

No.

Good to see you.

Thank you for having me.

Well, glad to be here.

Certainly glad to be talking about the Blazer Academy.

As you know, I attended a reunion recently and honestly, I was there for an hour and was sort of blown away by this program.

It was so impressive.

Where did the idea for the Blazer Academy come from?

Why does it exist?

We ask.

Great question.

When I was first elected, I had a series of town halls on gun violence and on on juvenile crime and different things, because I want to know what people thought about what we can do as a sheriff's office.

And we had about 5 or 6 town halls and about an eight month period.

And without question, everyone came up and said, we need mentorship, we need it problems, parenting problems.

The kids have nothing to do.

So I kind of dismissed it initially because I thought, there are people that have programs for that sort of thing.

That's not really a law enforcement type of activity.

And as I got to thinking, why can't it be a law enforcement activity?

Why can't we do that?

Start thinking back to a time when I was coaching football, coaching baseball, and I would call the kids over and then we'd have a conversation and I realized, these kids don't have anyone to talk to.

Some of them don't have to come from broken families.

Sometimes they they have some rather mature questions, but they can't ask their parents.

I don't feel comfortable asking their parents.

So I thought, you know, maybe we could do it.

Maybe we could replicate that, give them the advice that I may or may not have gotten from my father, my grandfather.

And so I said, let's just let's do this.

Let's build upon this, this mentorship, this unique perspective that law enforcement has.

And that's where that's where it started from.

Well, that leads perfectly into my next question.

As you said, there are lots of wonderful mentorship programs in Escambia County in Northwest Florida and across this country, but one that specifically comes from law enforcement is different, does give officers a chance to offer a unique perspective.

So you tell me when you have these these, students in the blazer Academy and they're learning from officers, from deputies, how does that different than, say, from other mentorship programs?

We know you can look it up and you can read a lot of books about how to be a mentor and just very good information out there, and you can have a quality program that way.

But I want it to be unique from a law enforcement perspective because everyone that's teaching it works at the sheriff's office, and we all have 20, 30, 40 years of experience and a number of different things.

I have experience in narcotics and Swat operations.

Others have experience in SROs.

And so we we've seen a lot.

And so we can give those cautionary tales.

We can we can talk from a perspective of we've seen pretty much everything there is to seeing in the in the areas we know of the peer pressures, we know the what drugs can cause and the connection between drugs and and guns, and then how a petty theft turns into a grand theft.

And then obviously it can can potentially turn into a serious crime.

So I think that's what the unique perspective is.

No question that they can ask that we haven't seen, heard from, investigated or been a part of because, not just our experience as law enforcement, employees, but also, you know, we have very backgrounds ourselves so we can resonate pretty well with the kids.

You say there's no question they can't ask.

I'm sure that for many of them in the room, though, there's got to be some intimidation factor like, oh my goodness, these are officers of the law.

How do you work on that?

How do you let them know?

Yeah, I get it.

I understand that we can be intimidating, but we are here to help.

You can ask us anything.

How do you sort of break that barrier?

Well, I think it's important to know not everyone is from the same background.

Not the instructors aren't from the same background, but neither are the kids.

Some of the kids are.

Or a high risk if you want to call it that.

Some of them are from just a wide variety of, socioeconomic levels.

And so what we do is we just we find some common ground.

I talk to them about current events, and then we have, you know, we bring them up to the podium, what we call podium time, and we have them talk about themselves.

And then as we continue to talk to them about it, and you just you build that rapport.

The first week is a lot different than a second and third, fourth, obviously into the last, the sixth week is a lot different.

And it's just a matter of familiarity.

They understand.

Hey, you know what?

I can ask that question.

I can say, hey, I'm having trouble with this.

Or and we also have an opportunity for them to talk to us after in between breaks at a dinner.

And we have opportunities to talk to them afterwards.

And some of them we have we even take home.

So it's you know, the answer your question shortly is the fact that we're there for them.

We're spending our most valuable asset, which is time with them.

So much of the program is about leadership now.

I'm sure that for many of them, they've got you all are teaching them how to make good decisions, how to not get themselves in trouble, how to not get in the car when your friends had a couple of drinks and all that stuff.

I've got two daughters, one of whom starts driving in a couple of weeks.

So I hear you loud and clear, but so much.

The program is also centered on leadership.

What are some of the leadership components that are taught?

Well, I think everything is about leadership.

It's because we feel like if you're a leader, then you won't follow someone down a bad path.

So everything from, you know, if you're in the front row, when we when we break to go to have a meal, we establish one leader and then the second row gets the leader.

Everyone gets a leader.

And we talk.

We talk about positions that they put themselves in and whether they want to be a leader or a follower.

And then we we break out into different sessions and, and we're 4 or 5 people will go to one and one instructor or one, one leader and then we'll find, okay, we need a leader for this class.

So everything is is based upon.

You get to be a leader this time.

What does it take to be that leader in this scenario?

What does it take to be a leader in this scenario?

And we do have a couple of speakers that come in and they talk about, where they might have been had they had different leaderships and leadership opportunities, and then what they're going to be, how do they become leader in their family?

And they're in their, their school group and on our football team, their athletic endeavor.

What does it take to be a leader?

Because the leadership is basically the principle that we surround everything else with.

Well, I got to say, something that was so impressive to me.

This this it sounds so simple, but I, I had a great appreciation for it tonight.

I was there at the reunion.

I talked to to a couple, who had been through the program, and both of them specifically mentioned the fact that they were taught to make eye contact, how to shake someone's hand, how to tie a tie.

These sorts of things are what we think of necessarily when we think leadership.

But I got to tell you, I appreciate them so much as it relates to communication and how vital that is.

Where does that part of the program come from?

The importance of just those day to day things that a lot of people may overlook?

Well, a big part of it is first impressions.

And then, you know, we are we're a judgmental society.

We people we judge people by our first impression.

You look at some is, oh, this guy is, is this or this young lady is that.

And so we tell them that that's important.

And part of that is introducing themselves, making eye contact.

Some of that is confidence.

Some of that is being a leader rather than being a follower.

So I think that that's again, what you saw is, is that that again, that first impressions segment, the tie and the tie is, is another thing is the point where, perhaps you didn't get that from from school, you didn't get that from a family member.

But what if you had a grandfather that could kind of tell you that?

So that when that one time comes around where you have to wear a tie to an interview or something, you've done it before.

It's not the first time.

You're not just floundering, you're not looking up on YouTube because you've never done it before.

And the thought there is that one time, maybe today, maybe next week, maybe next year, they're going to think back.

You know what, I remember this something resonated from that class or that session or just that brief interaction that it could be life changing.

I have such an appreciation for the fact that you guys started this in 2021, and and it went very, very well and pretty quickly realized this shouldn't just be about young men.

You've also got a blazer Academy for young women.

Can you talk a little bit about that evolution, how it came to be and why?

Absolutely.

I've mentioned how it started and I was coaching young men in football, so I started there.

That was the easier one for me.

But it was it was so successful and I was, I was pushed, you know, quite a bit from our, my chief of staff now, Whitney Lucas, he's she also runs our foundation, which who pays for this entire blazer academy.

So if you want to give money, you can give to our foundation.

But, I was pushing this.

Hey, why don't you do one on for the young, young ladies?

Because it will duplicate it, but a little different, obviously.

I see, you know what?

There's no great reason not to do that.

It's successful in the young men.

It could certainly be successful in young ladies.

And it has been tremendously successful.

Both of them, both classes.

When we open it up, they feel, I mean, within a day, that these classes fill up.

So, talk about the differences.

I will tell you, I have to be honest.

The young men are nowhere near as forthcoming as the young women are.

And we have to teach young men to look in the eyes and talk about yourself and and be self-confident.

We mentioned at one time two young men, young ladies.

And they are on it.

They are, we it just as an example, we asked for volunteers, and it's like pulling teeth for young men and.

Yes, for for for our volunteers, for the in the young ladies, Blazer Academy.

And we had the whole room raise their hand and we have to decide, okay, you get to go.

You get to go, you get to go.

So it's just a lot of differences there.

And we saw in the story, off the top, we saw some of the young women and the young men and how successful they've been.

We have just a couple of minutes left.

And one thing I really wanted to ask you, and I'll admit, off the top this question is a little saccharin.

Guilty as charged.

But I still want to know.

I ask this to a couple of other people who are helping with the program, and I'm going to ask you, because I know you've got a great answer, is it's clear what these young men and young women are getting out of this.

And I think it's clear to their parents and their guardians.

But for you, someone who who sees some of the really bad stuff, probably a lot of stuff that most of us don't want to even know exists, this is the opposite of that.

This is where you get to see some really good stuff.

Can you tell me a little bit about what it means on a drive home after a night at the Blazer Academy and how it makes you feel?

You know, we start hearing a lot from people say, oh, this new generation there.

Then it worked and I want to work.

All you do is play video games.

Well, we spent we have spent weeks at a time where these young men and young women, and I can tell you that our future is bright and we have some very bright minds.

We have some people that that that just make you smile.

And I'm not their parent, but, you know, you become attached to them.

You teach them something.

The last class, young men got up and said, hey, you know why I was I was being recruited to play football.

And and one of the things that that the recruiter told me was some of, what's up, talk to you and work with you on how to introduce yourself.

And he boldly said that it was the Blazer Academy that did this.

And all of the instructors, we're looking around.

We had a little smile on her face because we couldn't contain ourselves.

The sense of pride knowing that again, as I mentioned, there's just one thing that you pick up from this.

You may not have a father grandfather, but but it's that advice that that that you might take with you.

I think that's very important.

And you know, what it means to me is that is that we have a little part in their success story, just a little part.

And their upbringing, because I remember some of the people that helped me as a as a young child, and I hope that there's a second in their life today.

They think back that, you know, it was a time when they learned something from the Blazer Academy.

And the last thing you mentioned that it does fill up quickly.

How frequently does it run?

How do people find out more?

Well, we've kind of settled on on one class for the young men and one class for the young ladies.

This year we're having the the Alumni Academy that you've referred to, and that's a class that, there was the young men that had been to the class before and will probably do that for the young women next year.

So we have three classes, basically a men's, women's and an alumni every year.

Usually do around the summertime when so that they're out of school.

Secondly, how can I get in?

We put it out on our, our social media platforms when our Blazer Academy openings are, in fact, what we've had to do is put a warning, hey, in a week we're going to put this out because it fills up so quickly.

And it's just obviously it's a sense of pride for us.

It's it's our way to get back.

Well, make sure to follow them on on all social media outlets so you don't miss the next time around.

Sheriff Simmons, thank you so much for your time and shout out to everybody putting this thing together.

It really is most impressive.

Thank you for having us.

Yes, sir.

Appreciate your time very much.

To learn more about the Blazer Academy, go to Escambia County Sheriff's Office website, hover over engagement and click on Blazer Academy, which you'll see on the left side of the page.

Moving on to my next guest, Grace.

Bob is the president and CEO of the Gulf Breeze Area Chamber of Commerce, and is here today to talk about the Junior Leadership Program in Santa Rosa County.

Miss Carballo, thank you for coming in.

Thank you so much for having me.

Glad to have you here.

We're talking youth leadership, and I know that this junior leadership program in Santa Rosa County certainly fits into that particular bucket.

So tell me about the program.

Well, this was just our first year that we completed back in April.

So we've got a lot to learn, but we're very excited to provide this to all high school juniors in Santa Rosa County.

We just announced class two of 35 students who will be going through a six month long program where they will learn leadership fundamentals, self-discovery, as well as career exploration right here in the county as well.

Okay, so very good.

So you've just finished year number one, as you said, and it ran through the school year.

Is that how it works?

That's correct.

The program runs from September through April, starting in their junior year of high school.

And, we take them out of class one day a month, approximately to go on basically different field trips, tours, different facilities, meet different leaders in the area, and other training exercises that we put them through as well.

So you mentioned 35 here for class number two.

How many were in class 135 as well.

So that's the number.

That's the goal, at least for now.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, for as because there's more successful, it gets bigger and bigger.

Yes.

That's correct.

But ultimately I tell them a lot of people ask us why we have 35 students.

Really.

That's how many students you can fit on one school bus.

And so there we go.

It is what it is.

It is what it is.

Practical answers.

All right.

So, what happens in these in these want them.

You mentioned field trips.

Let me start with this actually.

How do the 35 get chosen for for people watching saying, I want my kid to be in year three, how do they do it?

It's a lot like a college application process.

So we promote this to all the high schools in Santa Rosa County.

I'm happy to see that we have representation from all seven.

But students are asked to fill out an application that we have.

A lot of them are short answer questions.

We have no GPA requirements.

Any student in Santa Rosa County can apply.

There's no cost to participate in the program.

And essentially what we're looking for is leadership potential.

What are you participating in?

What sorts of things are you doing inside and outside of school?

What are your goals for the future?

And then we have a panel of experts in the area, business owners, educators, people from the school district to read through all of those applications.

And that is quite a process.

And essentially we'll we'll score each one.

And the top 35 students will make the program, from, from application deadline to congratulations, you're in for this first year.

And now I guess the second year.

What's the window of time before people find out it's about a month long process.

So applications open in March, usually right after spring break.

And then they'll close in April, and then two weeks later, we'll have a class announced.

So that way, before they get out of school for the summer, they'll know whether they're going to be starting the program in the fall.

That's cool.

And you said September.

That's correct.

So they don't start like week one of school, but pretty pretty soon after that.

That's right.

It's time to go.

We give them a month to get their, you know, their feet wet with school and everything.

And then the first Tuesday of September will be their orientation and leadership fundamentals day.

So I know you've you've had one year so relatively small sample size.

I mean, there were 35 students that said, what were some of the big takeaways on the positive side from year one?

Were you just thought, boy, this is what I hoped would happen in my goodness, did it happen?

Absolutely.

We, you know, got a lot of feedback from our students.

We surveyed them at the end of every single day.

And one thing that we were really blown away by was one, the community support that we received from this, the sponsors and the facilitators and volunteers that came in to participate in this were amazing.

We had guest speakers fly in, actually to come in.

We had an industry expert from Microsoft come and speak to the students.

So, they gave us feedback.

Those students said that they were really blown away by who they got to meet.

And some of those places that we got to tour, we went into rooms that I normally wouldn't be allowed in, like going into the cadaver lab at Andrews Institute.

To learn from experts there about, you know, what kind of careers you can have in healthcare in our community.

And then as well as some students actually got, you know, internships just from the connections that they made through the program and showed a much bigger interest in pursuing a career right here in Santa Rosa County rather than going away, after high school and college, which is exactly what we wanted.

So, so obviously, I mean, these are these are high achieving students, right?

Even before they get into the program, they've they've had to fill out the application and they're impressive.

Young ones for sure.

So when it's over, what what did you see in terms of like these are some takeaways for them besides the, they got to go into some really neat rooms and they got to meet some very impressive people.

What about just like sort of skill sets, life skills that you're like, boy, they really this class changed in this way?

Absolutely.

A lot of the students told us that they felt a lot more confident in themselves.

One of the skills that we really try to teach them throughout the whole program is self introspection and goal setting.

From day one, we want them to look at themselves, find their guiding North Star, to use that that fluffy language, but actually find out who they are as a leader, what kinds of skills that they have, strengths and weaknesses and, and set goals for themself on how to pursue that.

So a lot of students know, coming out of the program, they have a better idea of what career they want to pursue, what skill sets they need to have in order to pursue that, as well as a better idea of what opportunities there are out there to train themselves and then to, to, you know, go on and be leaders in their own community.

It feels like, yeah, just exposing them to the world outside the classroom, making these connections, seeing these things they hear about, like in person right there.

That is just invaluable in terms of sort of like opening their minds to, oh, wow, look, this is real stuff.

Absolutely.

And you know, the people who came together for this program, essentially, it started with this one question of, you know, you're a successful leader.

Now, if you could go back and talk to yourself as a high school junior, what would you want to know?

And that's really been a lot of of what founded this program and how we've created this curriculum is looking at those skill sets that they're not learning in a classroom, that they may not have had the opportunity to been exposed to otherwise.

And, you know, shaping them into the future leaders that we need them to be as our next generation.

Of course, no doubt about that.

So allow me to ask this.

You told us some of the big takeaways, some of the positives from your number one, no doubt you and your team have kind of looked at the whole thing and thought, well, this could have been better.

We should try this next time.

Do you have any those that come to mind that you're thinking, I really want to see this happen in year two.

Absolute.

So we're actually working on adding a mentorship piece to this next year's program.

So students will be partnered with a circle of mentors.

So it'll be five students per one mentor.

Well, they'll get some more one on one, you know, advice from people rather than just talking to a panel of, you know, we have 35 students and a few guest speakers, but really working with them on a more intimate level.

That's something that was a goal early on.

We also hopefully will engage an alumni program, moving forward so we can track their progress on seeing where these students go after the program.

And that way we can also adjust our curriculum to make sure we're keeping up with the times.

With regards to the mentorship program.

Have you identified all those?

Are you looking for volunteers?

So we do have a few spots open, but we are actively taking applications.

I think we've got a robust group of individuals, but that is something that we will be recruiting every single year.

So if there are professionals in the community who are interested, please reach out to us.

We would be recruiting new ones every single year.

And I was going to that's what I was going to ask next for, for students next time around, or certainly for any potential mentors, volunteers, etc.. Where do they go?

How do they do they look for your email?

How do they contact?

Yeah, absolutely.

So we will disseminate information through the school district for our students on how to apply, but they can also visit our website, Gulf Breeze chamber.com or contact our office directly.

And we will point them in the right direction with, with about a minute left, I'll, I'll ask this last question.

I know that obviously these students are getting so much out of it.

But I want to know for you and your team.

I asked, Sheriff Simmons the same question.

What are you getting out of this?

Well, I have certainly learned a lot about leadership myself.

Like I said, going into rooms and meeting individuals that I may not have had the opportunity had I not said, come talk to this group of 35 students.

But I'm also learning a lot about this generation and their passion for the community.

And, I will say that Gen Z is it we're teaching right now really cares about, serving their their local community and truly want to help people.

It's the most common answer we get, and that's inspiring to me to know that our future is in good hands, no doubt about it.

Clearly.

Grace Carwile, president and CEO of the Gulf Breeze Chamber, thank you so much for telling us about the program.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Appreciate that very much.

That will do it for this month's learning curve.

Thank you so much for taking the time to watch for our executive producer Jill Hubbs I'm Kristen Garman.

We'll see you next month.