Sept. 7. The Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce has accepted 20 local high school juniors in its 2021-2022 Junior Leadership Lake Norman program. Students will learn more about their community during this intensive seven-month long program. The students were selected on the basis of their previous and potential leadership ability and community involvement. This year’s class includes students from Cannon School, Community School of Davidson, Hough High, Lake Norman Charter, and Lake Norman High School.

The students include: Mya Zile, Anna Dula, Andrew Burk, Sydney Peete, Matthew Alge, Molly Bradford, Laurel Coughlin, Carrie Griffin, Sophia Kritzer, Kaitlyn Martinez, Jack McMillan, Lulu Scruggs, Patrick Simon, Harshiv Singh, Jessica Teckenbrock, Leah Whiteside, Sofia Blasucci, Sarah Neely, Max Schwanz, and Luke Thompson.

The program kicked off with a retreat at Rural Hill where students participated in an “Mindful Exercise’, Leadership Socratic Seminar and team-building exercises.

Welcoming the students was Huntersville Mayor Pro Tem Melinda Bales and Jessica Bustamante, the executive director of Rural Hill and host of the retreat.