BY KARISSA MILLER

Effective communication and working as a team are just two of the team-building skills that local students learned on a recent field trip with the Youth Leadership Iredell program.

Jeff Kerr, a financial advisor with Thrivent, is a former NFL player who also worked in pit crews for NASCAR for a number of years. He led a teambuilding exercise at the Flow Nissan of Statesville dealership for Youth Leadership.

Working in groups of five, the students were tasked with changing two tires on a NASCAR car. Kerr told the students that they could ask questions, but he gave very little instruction. Each team was competing against other teams for the fastest time.

Student Iyona Reid said she felt intimidated when she first walked into the auto garage with her team.

“I thought, ‘Oh, no! What are we about to do?’ ” she explained. “We did really bad at first, but once we came together collectively, we were able to get the second fastest time overall as a group.”

Reid said she learned from the experience that everyone can be a leader and that things will flow better when communication is clear.

Sam Harper agreed. He said that once his team began communicating better that they went from changing two tires in almost two minutes to doing it in 30 seconds.

“In Youth Leadership, each activity is a deeper lesson. It’s a chance to learn something new. You also find good camaraderie,” said student Malia Hunter.

Another student, Paola Guillotte, said that her takeaway from the lesson was that “you can work well with people that you don’t know.”

Kerr encouraged the students to “have goals, write them down and aim high” to uncover the possibilities available to them.

“Try something hard today. Achieve something that you haven’t done before,” he said.

Andrew Jaikissoon, general manager of Nissan Flow in Statesville, told students that one thing about the car business is they need leaders in the industry.

There are opportunities for leaders on the sales side of the business and in service, Jaikissoon said. He invited the students to come and shadow any positions to learn more about different career paths.

“Our motto at Flow is ‘You don’t disadvantage a customer to help ourselves,’” he said. “We are here to help you out and be someone you can trust.”

Nissan hosted Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont members the day prior and Jaikissoon said that they want the community to know that there are job opportunities there.

After finishing up at at the dealership, the students visited Ft. Dobbs State Historic Site and then headed into downtown Statesville. There, they meet with Dorothy Woodard and Skip McCall, who shared their experiences during the Civil Rights era.

“We’ve been doing this program for 17 years. For me, one of the big things I hope the students take away is there are leadership opportunities no matter what career path you take” explained advisor Beth Packman.

About Youth Leadership

The Youth Leadership Iredell program is coordinated by the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce and is in partnership with Iredell-Statesville Schools.

“We select the top 25 percent of all the major high schools,” said advisor Kristi Madison Pfeufer. “They have to write an essay, go through an interview process and we choose 45 to participate.”

These students will spend the next couple of months polishing their leadership and soft skills while getting an up-close look at how things work.

“They will meet once a month and see different aspects of the community, get to meet with local leaders in the community and learn about the wonderful jobs and opportunities in Iredell County,” Pfeufer added.

This year’s class features students from South Iredell, West Iredell, North Iredell, and Statesville high schools and the I-SS early college programs.

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