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Ex-BHS student attends leadership education program

Danielle Munoz was in Orono, Maine, for Maine NEW Leadership, a six-day, nonpartisan public leadership education program provided at no cost to 28 college women with a variety of backgrounds, ages and majors throughout Maine.

Sponsored by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine, the program helps participants learn skills and develop networks that empower them to become civic and public leaders. Highlights of the week included a day at the Statehouse in Augusta, Maine; a dinner and tour at the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, Maine; and a dinner at Penobscot Valley Country Club, in Orono, with keynote speaker Lilly Ledbetter, whose fight for fair pay from Goodyear led to Congress enacting the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009. In addition, students enacted a testimony for the Jefferson Amendment to L.D. 1774 for Clean Elections in Maine to better understand how the law-making process is conducted.

The 28 participants in NEW Leadership were chosen from a large pool of applicants and represented 18 different institutions, including University of Maine and Maine Community College System campuses, Bowdoin College, Bates College, Colby College, Husson University, Thomas College, Carnegie-Mellon University and St. Lawrence University.

“I have gained a lot of confidence in my abilities to be an effective leader and now would like to have a more active role in public service within my community,” Munoz said of the experience.

Munoz is a Bedford High School graduate and is majoring in politics at Bates College.