CELEBRATING ACCOMPLISHMENTS — Members of the Class of 2026 of Youth Leadership Weirton celebrated the completion of their journey Sunday, with a graduation luncheon. The program, organized by the Weirton Area Chamber of Commerce, is offered each year to sophomores at Weir, Oak Glen, Madonna, and Brooke high schools. -- Craig Howell

WEIRTON — The accomplishments of more than two dozen young leaders from Hancock and Brooke counties were celebrated Sunday afternoon with a graduation luncheon for the Youth Leadership Weirton Class of 2026.

Each year, the Weirton Area Chamber of Commerce invites up to 30 sophomores from Weir, Brooke, Madonna, and Oak Glen high schools to take part in the program designed to better prepare the youth for their future.

“We’ve been doing this program for about 29 years now,” noted Weirton Chamber President Brenda Mull. “Our goal is they will enjoy it and, hopefully, take something with them.”

The class is selected through a blind vetting process, with a committee considering a student’s grade point average, standing within their school and community, and the submission of an essay in which the student is asked what they would do if they were to be principal of their school.

The program kicks off in September, with the class meeting regularly throughout the year, often divided into groups and presented with hands-on activities and learning experiences.

“Each month, the students have a different session to give them a taste of the business world,” Mull explained.

It kicked off with a Teamwork session, held with cooperation from Blue Stream Farms, where students worked in groups as part of a cooking competition, during which one ingredient was left out and they had to figure out ways to complete their dish.

As the first activity of the program, it also was the first time many of the students had met, with each team including representatives from each of the four participating schools.

Bella Heubel of Weir High noted her team talked their task over to learn about each other’s skills and knowledge.

“We talked about who would be the best at the roles,” she said of their winning breakfast burger.

Thomas Welch of Madonna was part of a team crafting a Hawaiian-style burger.

“We made a special sauce,” he said, looking back at the experience.

True Colors, presented by Carole Scheerbaum of the Lee Day Report Center, provided insight into the students’ individual personality and character traits, along with a better understanding of how they may conflict and work together.

Gracee Walker, of Oak Glen, reflected on being “blue” in the exercise which typically features creativity, an interest in the arts, and a sensitivity toward the needs of others.

“We all had a lot of the same thoughts and feelings,” Walker said. “We thought more about the thoughts and feelings of others.”

SIMSOC, guided by Stephanie O’Brien of Madonna High School and Brandon Palmeri of the Weirton Police Department, featured a simulated society exercise.

“Your goal is to figure out how to live in the society, and survive while making sure the society survives,” Mull noted, adding it shows how everyone has their share of struggles and how each segment of society needs the others. “Some start looking at the real world a little bit differently.”

Parker Comm from Oak Glen, said there was a bit of a learning curve when starting the activity, which divides the group into different economic classes and assigns roles to some but not everyone.

“It took us a while to figure out what we were doing,” he said.

Others noted the importance of learning to communicate, work together and help each other to keep things going.

The Integrity and Vision session, with Joe Paolo, provides lessons on the importance of ethics and setting goals, both in business and in life.

They were presented with a variety of scenarios, with the class having to decide how to react.

Among those was a situation in which a co-worker steals a product pitch from someone on the team and presents it to their manager as their own.

“We had to decide whether to tell,” noted Alea White of Weir High.

Members of the Class of 2026 were: Geena Birkhimer, Sophie Brady, Tyler Dillon, Kalie Moore, and Thomas Welch from Madonna; Luke Haught, Hunter McAbee, and Andrew Mockbee from Brooke; Alayna Bennett, Bella Heubel, Zoey Spencer, Abygail Szczerbinski, and Alea White from Weir; and Amelia Allison, Gannon Cline, Parker Comm, Lucy Ford, Emma Francis, Kaleena Gibson, Ava Gittings, Emri Greenlief, Evan Kovarik, Jackson O’Rourke, Kaden Rice, Gracee Walker, and Samantha Wilson from Oak Glen.

In addition to their experiences, each graduating student is set to receive a college credit through West Virginia Northern Community College.