This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Dunckel Plans a B.O.L.D. Event for Eighth Grade Boys

The leadership program helps young men with the transition from middle school to high school.

annual Boys Only Leadership Development (B.O.L.D.) program, now in its sixth year, will be held March 25.

Designed to help prepare eighth grade boys for high school, the program was started by Rich Burrell, a school counselor. Burrell said he wanted to create a version of the long-time girls-only program (G.O.L.D.), because the boys need it as much.

“The key word is respect, and how you demonstrate that comes in a lot of different ways.” Burrell said. “You respect yourself, your body, your mind, you have respect for others, women ... We bring in keynote speakers and other guys that volunteer their time that come in and speak to the boys about these issues. In between, there’s lots of food and team building activities and games.”

Find out what's happening in Farmington-Farmington Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Empowering young men to be as successful as they can be is part of the philosophy of the event. Principal Allen Archer said students go from being a kid to a young adult in such a short time, they may become overwhelmed by what is expected from them.

“We wanted to have a program for the boys so they really understand what that change was going to be,” Archer said. “Socially, academically; what your expectations will be for your behavior, those types of things ... Things that you might get away with as a child, once you get older, if you’re still making bad choices, they’re taken seriously now."

Find out what's happening in Farmington-Farmington Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

While the topics are serious, B.O.L.D. is also a fun event, Archer said.

“We never get complaints about being lectured. The kids love it. One of their favorite parts is where they get to ask the high school kids anything they want," he said.

With a laugh, Anthony Qasawa, a Dunckel eighth grader planning to attend the event, said his first question will be  “How are the girls?”, followed by, “Are the classes harder?”.

Matt Morgott signed up because a lot of his friends did too.

“It sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun.” he said. “I’m looking forward to learning how the transition is going to be and how to keep you on track to being a good person.”

Michael Fuller-Roberts said he signed up mostly out of curiosity, but is looking forward to it as well.

“I just want to know what they’re going to be talking about there," Michael said. “I’m kind of excited about [going to high school]. I’ve been here a while, so I kind of want to go to a new school. See new people, have harder classes.”

When asked if he was nervous at all about making the jump from middle school to high school, Michael said he isn't worried about all that much.

“Just maybe the size of the school, I might get lost," he said.

For a complete list of events for B.O.L.D. along with other information, click here.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Farmington-Farmington Hills