YLC Members Attend ISTEP Summit

The I-STEP (Iowa Students for Education and Prevention) Executive Council held their annual summer summit event the week of June 9-13; this year was much different from the past couple of years. This year the I-Step Executive Council held four different summits throughout the state of Iowa. The first summit Tuesday June 10th was held in Harlan IA, the second summit Wednesday the 11th was held in Pella IA at Central College, the 3rd summit was held in Waverly at Wartburg College on Thursday the 12th and finally I-STEP traveled to Storm Lake for the final summit at Buena Vista University Friday the 13th. Each location had approximately 25 kids. These four summits were a free, all day event that featured keynote speakers Stacia Brezinski and Chad Bullock from the Forget Tobacco Campaign, also breakout sessions that taught the summiteers about addiction, information about how to form a chapter, information about new tobacco products and then about the CADCA organization, to name a few. The I-STEP council is made of 11 students from several areas of Iowa; three of the eleven members are from Van Buren County’s Youth Leadership Council (YLC), Cassie Johnson and Drew Nolting 2014 graduates of Van Buren High School, and an upcoming Junior Ciery Welcher. Isabelle Neeley and Jacinta Wenke from Van Buren attended the Pella summit on Wednesday and learned a lot of great information that they will be able to bring back to Van Buren County to share with other YLC members locally. Anyone grades 8th-12th can apply for the 2014-2015 Executive Council, visit www.istep2014summit.com

Cassie Johnson, Jacinta Wenke, Cierstynn Welcher, Isabel Neeley and Drew Nolting at the conference!