Welcome to the SSI Blog!

Although the idea of doing a blog has been discussed off and on for many years, as is often the case with many good things, we just never got around to it. Today, however, that idea is finally being realized. This is the first installment of a new blog which will be written by the staff, alumni and friends of SSI.

We chose the name “Empowered to Lead” because the core of our mission at SSI is to empower young people to change their world for Christ by realizing their full leadership potential. Our contributors will discuss wisdom, strategies, tactics and other aspects of leadership. In addition, we’ll be sharing our personal viewpoints focused on lessons learned about God, ourselves and our world. From time to time we will also feature our alumni, including how SSI helped shape their future. I trust you will find that our team has a lot to offer from a wide variety of life experiences. It is our goal to encourage and inspire young and old alike to be a light shining in the darkness in our world today.

By way of background, for more than 20 years, we have invested our lives in the hearts and minds of the next generation. Thousands of students have experienced the life-transforming programs of SSI. The question is…why do we do it?

The answer is that young people are our most important resource, comprising a small part of the current population, yet representing 100% of our future. Every individual has a unique God-given purpose that cannot be fulfilled by anyone else and their ability to fulfill that purpose is greatly enhanced by developing their full leadership potential at a young age. Our responsibility as adults is to model and transfer time-honored moral and social ideals to the next generation, keeping in mind that the blessings of liberty are dependent on personal virtue and civic responsibility.

SSI has taught us over the years that those principles are best learned through challenging real-world experiences in a faith-filled environment. The leadership simulations we create take young people on an adventure into worlds they never knew existed. We put them right in the middle of the action. They role-play as legislators, journalists, lawyers, business owners and campaign managers. Our goal is to make sure that every experience at SSI is as real as it can be without being the real thing. This is only made possible because of the hundreds of adults and college age volunteers who come along side us to serve as coaches, lobbyists, judges, business consultants, speakers, teachers, aides de camp (college students), and chaperones. And undergirding everything at SSI is the call to a whole-hearted commitment to Christ and His word along with a charge to go out and be His Ambassadors in their generation!

One of my early mentors once called SSI “A magnificent vision,” and I could not agree more!