Police and Fire Youth Leadership Academy inspires kids to be their best

NOVI — The annual Police and Fire Youth Leadership Academy for local youth got off to a great start July 15 as kids were put through their paces at the Walled Lake Adventure Course, located at the Walled Lake Outdoor Education Center. Just over 40 kids took on the obstacle course, which is essentially a mini boot camp.

Detective Sarah Moulik, of the Novi Police Department, said the adventure course, which features a zip line, a rock climbing wall, and other rigorously challenging activities, is traditionally done on the academy’s first day, as it allows the instructors to see which kids are natural leaders and which kids need to work on those skills. She said the instructors can then break up the students into groups so that not all the leaders are together. She said this way they can “bring out the best in each kid.”

“One of our goals is to try to get the kids to start stepping into the role of being a leader,” Moulik said. “We try to do different activities that try to get the kids to lead their group or lead their activity that they are doing, or whatever it may be, to try to develop some of those skills early on.”

The academy is held over the course of one week. The kids have the opportunity to learn about the various aspects of both the Novi Police Department and the Novi Fire Department while building leadership skills. This includes learning about the gun range, police dogs, as well as the various types of equipment that is used.

Ausude Gumas, 12, of Novi, said she wants to be an engineer one day and decided to take the academy to better her leadership skills. She said she wants to learn about the various types of equipment that is needed for the Police and Fire departments so that she can help design better equipment for them when she grows up.

“I want to learn what they (police and fire departments) need right now, like any equipment or stuff, so when I grow up, it’s like an idea to make it and I can help the community around me and lower the number of people who die from, like, fires or kidnapping or something,” Gumas said.

Gumas said the Walled Lake Adventure course taught her, as well as her classmates, how to be confident in themselves and to listen to and trust in their own decisions.

“I decided to get involved with the Police and Fire Leadership Academy to really test myself,” Shardha Sridharan, 13, said. “Specifically, I want to know how much of a good leader I really am.”

Arna Shah, 12, said that she enrolled in the academy to be able to promote leadership within her community.  She said she hopes to be able to help others within the community and that she strives to make the world a better place. Shah said she hopes to learn new skills that have to do with police and fire departments.

“It really puts your skills to the test, while you learn new skills,” said Ananya Vandrangi,12.

Vandrahgi said the academy is teaching them a lot about responsibility, communication, safety and how to socialize better.

“It really pushes the leadership qualities out of everybody,” she said.