Leadership Venango – Class Projects

Participants of Leadership Venango will be required to work as part of a small group to plan, develop, and show leadership to others in a community based project.


Class of 2019

Team Business – Job Shadow Guide

Team Student – Student Survey

Team Educators – Virtual Reality Tours of Local Businesses


Class of 2020

The Class of 2020 group projects were all based on “communication”:

Team Community – Communication Directory

Team Business – Venango County Small Business Resource Guide

Team Youth – “Based upon informal surveys and anecdotal evidence, we were able to determine that our local schools didn’t know about and weren’t enjoying the benefits of the recently created Venango County Job Shadow Resource Guide. We created 30 second summaries to be read at each morning announcement in the high schools during a one month period that highlighted job shadow tips and descriptions of local professions. Essentially we wanted to “communicate” the Job Shadow Guide’s existence and contents to both the students and educators. We had three schools (OC, Franklin, and VC) on board and ready to get us scheduled when COVID hit.”


Class of 2021

MapMe – Recreation in Venango County


Class of 2022

Team A – Youth Volunteer Traning Workshops (These workshops have now been adopted by the United Way of Venango County and rebranded under the name Connect2Contribute, find more by clicking here)

Team B – Venango Speaks Podcast (This team created 2 initial episodes and then passed this project along to local Teens through the Oil Region Library Association, find more by clicking here)

Team C – Little Free Libraries (A Little Free Library was established along the walking trail at UPMC Northwest Hospital)

Click here for a newsletter article with details on each project.


Class of 2023

Team A – “Foundations for Leadership in Your Community”, leadership training day for high school juniors and seniors

Team B – Rethink Poverty simulation

Team C – Relaunch of the Be Here Venango Ambassador Program, with a focus on mentor matching


Class of 2024

Team 1 – Review and update of Job Shadow Guide (originally created by Class of 2019)

Team 2 – Created a mobile tour of the area, available here: https://pocketsights.com/tours/tour/Pleasantville-The-Stories-of-Venango-County-9391


Class of 2025

Team 1 Financial Literacy Resource Guide
Created a financial literacy resource guide for use by high school educators intended to provide secondary education professionals in Venango County with information about financial literacy programs and resources available to supplement classroom learning.

Team 2Community Philosophy Circle
Held a series of community philosophy circles that began with the question “How would you reshape society if you were building it from scratch?” Hosted a symposium/speaker event and continue to host conversations in the community.

Team 3 – Heart & Soul
Assisted the Venango Heart & Soul initiative in collecting stories from community members and hosting a community event. Learned about story gathering and continue to volunteer with the initiative.