The best thing about LeadAmerica is the people you meet. You all share one thing in common – the characteristics of leadership. I lost touch with the people from my IDN conference around December, six months after the conference. While at my conference this year, I actually ran into my friend from IDN. I wished I stayed in touch with him and I plan to e-mail him soon to see how his conference went. I made a lot of friends from around the country. Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico, New Jersey...even someone from Mexico. These people are the leaders of the future and I can say I knew them first.
So, I’ve told you that I’ve done all these lectures and learned all about the Balkan region. Sound like school? Yes, it is exactly like school. No, I’m totally kidding. I do have lectures and boring stuff like that. But, hello, they are giving me two colleges credits. I had to do some form of a lecture but in between the lectures, we did fun things. We goofed off and threatened to bomb Serbia as a joke. We had a talent show. We had two boys in our group dancing to the song "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. We joked about how the staff kept saying we are the future leaders of America, but we can’t lead ourselves across the street. We had fun.
I just finished my freshman year in High School. No offense, but people at my school are idiots. I think they think it’s “cool” to be a democrat. They claim they are big democrats. So, I ask them their position on the war. They respond by asking, “Uh...we went to war?” At LeadAmerica, it’s so different. Everyone has an opinion on politics. Although, most peoples’ opinions differ widely from mine, it was an awesome experience being with young people who cared about current events.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering about those penguins...
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jeremy
I attended the same LeadAmerica diplomacy program that you did just last week, but the fact is that the program is basically a scam. You dont need to be smart at all to attend. The program invites people that are on the lists of different organizations or from other sources without even checking their background or GPA. In fact, they threatened not give us our college credits if we did not reccomend other students from our school which they will invite without checking their gpa. In fact, I invited 2 of the dumbest kids I know who will probably get their letters soon. By the way, you can't use those college credits that you supposedly get unless you are already enrolled in a college. Not to mention that not many colleges accept them and they don't really count for much anyhow. Its also a bit ironic how you're supposed to be the future leaders of america, yet they run the camp like a detention center where they control almost every facet of your daily routine. You wear your nametag every minute of the day and you're basically holding your TL's hand everywhere you go. Eeven if you're sight seeing in something as small as the vietnam memmorial in D.C., you get yelled at if you're not in a group of four and the boudaries they set for you in any place you go to are pretty small anyhow. Your "sight seeing" mostly consiststs of walking by the sight or stopping really briefly. If you want to do something as small as buy a hotdog at a stand on your way somewhere, you have to take a vote of hands. The Kosovo simulation which is supposed to be the core of the program is pretty lame. Preparation consists of girls checking their myspace and "meetings". The actuall simulation consists of people with big egos standing up and arguing about nonsense. The TL's they povide you with are not very smart and are basically your 24/7 baby sitters. The program charges you a high price for attendence, but you really don't do much that costs a whole lot of money. Everywhere you go is free and you stay in college dorms. The closing address of the conference is given by the CEO, David Salamone who is basically a guy with a big ego who probably quoted evey bumber sticker I could think of and that had a camera on him the whole time (I could have sworn he was shooting a promotion video or something). Your whole time there is basically wasted on the afformentioned simulations and speakers that usually don't give you much insight. The conference was hardly life changing, if anything it made me realize how you can turn a summer camp into an efficient businness. The information you get in the mail hardly tells you anything except for the exagerated statements about the credibility it has. If you do hear any positive statements about the camp from children, it usally has to do with the friends they met which is a standard facet of any program where you interact with other children. You won't find many positive statements about the learning experiance itself which is the main focus of the camp and motivation for people to come in the first pace. By the end of the camp, you're just relieved not to be under its strict controll anymore.
2 - hugo-a-go-go
Thanks, Jeremy!
As a parent, I almost fell for this. I had to convince my wife that any organization that makes money by preying on both the ego and goodwill of parents is not one to be trusted.
They use teachers as unknowing recruits for their organization. Our instructor received a packet in the mail; she took it as a great honor to be called upon to make a nomination...and nominated our daughter. We were initially ecstatic, but when we saw the price tag, my skepticism set in...
Luckily, your review helped make a decision and saved my bank account.
Helpful service...Thanks
3 - CallmeMaddy
I still think you made a mistake. I AM IN MY DORM RIGHT NOW! FOR LEADAMERICA, YEAR 3. It is again awesome
4 - Runover by LA
Jeremy, it's so good to hear about your experience, as I've seen LeadAmerica try and silence students like you from speaking the truth. It is a scam, and one that runs deeper than just tricking kids into thinking that this is something special in order to wiggle several thousand dollars out of mom and dad.
The people that run this company (er, I mean "organization") are crooked, bully lawyers who run over anyone and everyone that gets in their way. When they don't get what they want for cheap or free, they threaten to sue everyone. I was the unfortunate victim of their clever manipulations of the system in order to get services for free; and after nearly 2 years of not thinking about it was most displeased to see that all of that work is still being used by them for marketing.
Parents, just say no to a bad organization and encourage your kids to look elsewhere for an educational, fun summer experience. LeadAmerica is trouble!
5 - Went to NY
Hey, I went to New York this year for the Global Entrepreneurship Conference. I've only got two things to say about LeadAmerica: 1. It's a great social experience. 2. I learned... pretty much nothing. And in the end, it wasn't worth the money.
I can't speak for other conferences, but as for the Entrepreneurship one, I want people to know what they're paying for. Here goes my long review:
At NY, they had us working in teams of about 20 on developing a business into a paper and presentation. The whole paper was about 6 pages. Some paper. I learned close to nothing. After we split up the work, my finance team (of 4 people) went to the library to go on facebook. Nobody gave us enough instruction as to what to do (they could have at least given us a little background on finance); nor did anyone facilitate the process of writing the paper. And the presentation? I swear, the PowerPoint that we made would have gotten a D or a C- in school.
Our so-called team leader sat in the classroom and joked around with the students. When we had a leadership workshop to do, she told us we didn't have to do it as long as we didn't talk to any other team or team leader. I didn't want to sound like a nerd or anything, but I had to speak up and protest. Unfortunately, my opinion didn't resonate with the team, so we all went back to facebook-ing. Honestly... my parents forked up a couple thousand for this camp...
On that note" many of the kids at my camp were rich. A lecturer asked us to raise our hands if our parents owned a business, and about 80-90% of the students did. I understand that small businesses don't make you rich, but one guy I knew had a dad who was the CEO of a video game company. A couple other guys were loaded too. They're nice, and some of them are my friends, but honestly, it gives me the feeling that none of the students who went to LeadAmerica were smart or destined to become future leaders... they only had money.
The guest speakers... many of them were pretty average. 90% of them were college professors, pretty dissapointing, because I was anticipating a few CEOs or at least executives or something. 2 speakers showed up very late, and 1 speaker didn't show up at all. WTF? Guess who it was? The CEO of LeadAmerica! We had one good (actually, I should say great, in comparison to the others) speaker: the founder of Princeton Review (test prep company). He gave a very biased speech about running your own business. Biased is what we need" we need to hear a successful guy's opinion on what to do and what not to do! LeadAmerica should have brought in more speakers like him; it may have made the conference worth the $$.
The social experience was pretty great. At NY, we stayed in dorms, and my floor was the loudest, most obnoxious, and GREATEST floor to live on ever. Now I understand why so many people say college will be the best experience of your life. And the dance... amazing. They were really pretty lax about rules and what not, they let us freak dance and brought in a cool DJ. And a couple of kids got away with getting drunk (although 2-4 students were caught and sent home immediately, with their parents having to pay for the airline tickets). This will probably alarm some parents... If you trust your student not to get wasted, then he/she will be fine. I'd say, out of 200 kids at the conference, only about 20-40 were wasted that night. I wasn't among them of course.
By the end of the conference, the general attitude of students was like this: "I didn't learn anything here and the conference was a scam. I made so many friends and I had so much fun." I'm not sure why people would want to come back a second year... maybe they're rich and want to do something other than see movies all summer, or maybe they want to meet friends. There are some hot girls who attend... and I guess guys too" that sounds weird, as I'm a guy if you haven't noticed. Some people do hook up, and most of them realize that this is a short-term thing, just to have fun.
So parents: send your kid to LeadAmerica only if you have a lot of money (preferably if you've paid off your house mortgage and also have all of your kid's tuition saved up, oh and have enough retirement savings to last the rest of your life). It will be an awesome social experience for them, but they won't learn anything and it won't be life changing AT ALL. Furthermore, if you're thinking of this for college, colleges don't care. Colleges know that camps like LeadAmerica invite basically anybody (disregarding their intelligence). Putting LeadAmerica on your college apps is equivalent to saying: "I'm rich, I'm spoiled, and I'm living the life..."
Perhaps my expectations were too high. I'm a high-achiever, and I wanted to learn (but I still have my share of fun). I definitely didn't get what I bargained for. By the way, I'm from a middle class family, and I guess I'm a little stingy.
6 - Went to NY
Something I forgot to add to my review:
The field trips weren't field trips at all. For example, on our schedule, we were to go to the NY Mercantile Exchange from 8:30-12:00. Well, it takes us 45 minutes to line up and walk over. We wait 20 minutes for the NYMEX to set up for us (they're very tight on security). We head up to an elevator and stand in front of a glass window above the trading floor. A person speaks to us for 10 minutes. We head back down the elevator and leave. We get lunch and then sit around for the remainder of the time.
This field trip that I've elaborated on was the most impressive one that we went on. A couple other times we went shopping. Also, we stopped by the Statue of Liberty for enough time to walk around and find a suitable spot to take a picture and find the bathroom" then we had to get back on the ferry. Our first field trip was a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Not too exciting.. we walked half way and walked back (it felt like 10-15 minutes).
If you want me to elaborate on any aspect of the conference, I'll do so gladly (although with high school starting in a few days... I might not ever visit this site again, but please do ask anything as I might respond!). I'd like to save you guys money" I feel like it's my cause. When I came back home, I felt like I had disappointed my parents, because it was I who had persuaded them to let me go. When they asked me how it was, I demurred. I said that I made so many friends and had a good time. It took me a while to come clean and say that I didn't really learn that much. Hmm. They weren't too pleased, but it wasn't my fault. We were all suckered by LeadAmerica's clever advertising" but I don't want you guys to fall for this scam!
7 - John
Jeremy, I have to disagree with you man. I have been to three conferences and what you have said just is not true. They are very well run, especially if you have ever been anywhere else. The lectures were great, true some were not, but that is what college will be like. (at least that is what my dad says and he's a doctor). The college credits are real. Sure spending time to line up sucks, but that is usually because not everyone listens the first time. We had really sweet speakers at my conference, and if you listen and ask questions, you learn a ton. It seems that the students in my group who complained (and it was only 2 or 3) probably were not ready for it anyway. Long story short it is a great experience.
8 - student
For those of you that attended LeadAmerica and enjoyed it...how did you raise money? I really want to attend the Homeland Security one, but my parents are asking me to pay for all of it, so how did you guys do it??
9 - Jessica
My parents couldn't afford the tuition, but I was still able to go. I am in college now, and it was a great experience. I was able to do fundraising to help cover most of it, and from what I was told by their staff was that they also have merit and needs based scholarships available. My mom and I called the office at LeadAmerica, and they helped us through all of it! They answered our questions and gave us advice and guidance in those areas. Some of it was even on the website! It is awesome, Trust me!
10 - Truther
Let me just add an insider's perspective here. Having worked for LeadAmerica, I can attest that they are money-hungry crooks! It is very sad to read about all of you fundraising the thousands of dollars it costs to attend an inflated summer camp! Of course they will help you, they want money in their bank! LeadAmerica sues and goes after people to get and keep their money! It's a total scam, so I hope more people will stop throwing their family's dollars away.
11 - Doug
I have been to a LeadAmerica conference, 3 years ago, and it was great. My brother went last summer. I am now a pre-law major with a business minor. I researched the LeadAmerica lawsuits you mentioned, but did not find any. If you had a bad experience working for them, sorry. But that doesn't mean that we didn't have a great time attending. We also learned very much. I have had many jobs over the years as I have put myself through school and I can tell you that every company has employees who may be unhappy. But that doesn't change the fact that both I and my brother (as well as the friends I made while at the conference that I still talk to) did not find it a rewarding experience.
12 - John
I researched NJLC / Lead America since my 11 year old daughter not even in middle school yet (but a great student) received an invitation. My wife is all excited, I smell scam parents out of money for a glorified Summer trip. I have no idea where they get their names but it doesn't seem like this program applies to an eleven year old !
13 - Kevin
John,
My suggestion to you is to call them and ask. I was sceptical as well. However, she had been nominated by her teacher. My daughter went and had a great time. It was scary letting my daughter go, but she had so much fun. She brought back course materials that quite frankly impressed me. I'm a lawyer so my job is to be skeptical. I asked around alot about LeadAmerica and they checked out ok. All in all, it was rewarding for her. She loved her leaders which she called "TL's" and wants to go back again. Give them a call and talk to them, I did.
14 - Erin
I went to a NJLC conference right before I started middle school and it was sooo cool! My teacher nominated a couple of us to go. I am going to the CSLC confernece this year since I am in High School now. We heard from great speakers, and got to see lots of things. I also made lots of friends and the one I keep in touch with the most is going to go to the same conference as me this summer! Best part is that with the HS conference we get college credit :)!
15 - Chellie
My severely disabled [mind of a 6-month-old] was just "selected" for their 2008 conference. If you get the letter by mail it is because your child's name is obviously on a mailing list and not because they're "chosen". I am awaiting response from LeadAmerica as to how my child got 'chosen' and frankly, they can respond to me or to Dateline NBC. I dont care either way, I intend to expose them for defrauding unsuspecting parents.
16 - Rico
My son is attending a conference this year. He is going to the Medicine and Healthcare conference at the law school. He had a friend that went to a conference last year. He is very excited about it. I did some checking and it seems to be a pretty credible organization. The LeadAmerica foundation is what is helping my son attend the conference. We aren't able to afford the tuition, but through some fund raising and help from the LeadAmerica Foundation he is going to be able to go.
17 - fact
Last summer I went to the lead America Leadership summit. Wow. It is the biggest rip-off in the world. It's a joke. I have a good GPA so I thought the letter saying I was chosen for "academic achievements" was true, but one kid at my school who skips three days a week and smokes pot every week got one too, saying the same thing (he didn't go).
The camp is just a huge business, you stay in dorms, go to free public places, and still have to pay 3,000 dollars! you are under a Nazi like control, while walking you cannot stop, wander more than 5-feet away, or look at anything. the simulation(which is supposed to be the big event) is just 3 or 4 kids arguing for everyone, while the rest just talk to their friends. you do nothing acaemicly, you just discuss ideas and listen to speaches.
The guests were usually late, and just talked about:
1. how great their collage would be for us
2.how much we are going to learn at this camp
Basically its a giant social camp, you hang out with kids, meet new kids, and do stuff with kids. and for some people thats great but alot of the kids were rich and arrogant, or just bored and mean.
by the end everyone was disappointed that for 3,000 dollars we just got babysat the entire time, and felt like we had got gypped.
18 - Chellie
This is my second comment in this blog. My very severely disabled child [mind of a 6-month-old] was invited. I investigated: Here us wat the Executive Director of LeadAmerica wrote me [copied and pasted from his Email]: Dear Mrs. van Antwerp,
I am writing in follow-up to my email from Monday March 10, 2008. Again I would like to say how sincerely sorry I am that a letter and materials were sent to your home. As promised, we have investigated the source of the data which caused the misdirected mailing.
We have identified that Jessi’s name was provided to us by a student list provider, American Student Lists. American Student Lists is one of a number of national talent identification programs, surveys and student list organizations that identify and provide names of students to organizations like ours for purposes of recruiting to academic and other summer programs. Some of these organizations also identify and provide student lists to colleges and universities as part of their recruiting and admissions process.
American Student Lists has informed us that Jessi’s name was obtained by them from what they term as a “non-internet survey”. While they were not able to identify the exact survey source, they have taken action to remove Jessi’s name from their files for mailing purposes. I have taken the liberty of attaching American Student List’s reply to our request.
In addition, we have asked that American Student Lists be prepared to make available a senior representative should you wish to speak with them directly. The attached e-mail contains the contact information for Stacy DeNatalie. She is aware of the situation and will be happy to provide a more detailed explanation if you feel that is necessary.
Mrs. van Antwerp, please know I am extremely disappointed and disturbed by this incident. I am grateful that you made me aware of the situation and allowed me the opportunity to address it with our information providers and with you. As disappointing as this situation may be, it does present us with an opportunity to learn and improve as an organization.
I hope you will accept my formal and heartfelt apology. As I mentioned in my earlier email, LeadAmerica is a very honorable organization that serves a very important mission, to which I have dedicated most of my adult life and energies. Please let me know if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Chris M. Salamone, Esq.
Executive Director
MY CONCLUSION: Anybody who has the money to send kids to DC for nothing more than a summer camp go for it. But dont be fooled into believing that your child was "specially selected". I have filed FTC complaint against them.
19 - MEGAN
I WANTED TO THANK ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTS. I GOT THE SAME LETTER IN THE MAIL AND I WAS SO HAPPY. I THOUGHT I GOT SOMETHING SPECIAL...GUESS NOT LOL (LAUGH OUT LOUD). YOU GUYS HAVE SHOWED ME WHAT I WAS GETTING INTO AND I APPRICIATE IT. =)
20 - CallmeMaddy
You're making a mistake, Megan.
21 - Vik
I WAS ALMOST FALLING FOR THIS LEAD AMERICA BULLSHIT, THANK GOD YALL OPEN MY EYES!
22 - SCAMMED
I just got back from the engineering and robotics congressional student leadership conference (june 16-25)in boston, MA at franklin olin college and i can say that i am SEVERELY DISAPPOINTED!!!! the whole thing was like a detention center. MOST of the staff were OK, some were great, but a lot were tyrants and one was almost exactly like professor umbridge from harry potter. it was a major waste of time and money. it's just a dynamic scam. there were and are loads of other lead-america "alumni" that agree with me. it's supposed to be for outstanding students and kids that have tremendous leadership potential. BULLSHIT!! there were dropouts that were attending vocatonal tech schools at the conference. obviously, leadamerica does not perform the extensive background checks it claims to do. quite a bit of the lectures they gave us were just advertisements for the college that the conference was held at. SO MANY POWERPOINTS! the whole thing was just a big joke. i expected a lot more. at the end of the conference, they gave us a paper with name slots on both the front and the back to fill out. these are supposed to be kids we think should be nominated for the conference. as incentive, leadamerica will give us conference points for the more kids we nominate. the points can be used as assets for other conferences, but the points, and conferences, are virtually worthless. STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM LEADAMERICA AND GUYS IN FANCY SUITS AS POSSIBLE!!!!! they just want your money
23 - kidsmom
My daughter is going tomorrow to the Medical health conference at Fordham. She is a EXTREMLEY nervous, and very shy. Since it will be the first time away from home for a long period of time, I'm wondering if I should allow her to go. After reading these blogs, which I wish I would of read prior to enrolling her, I am wondering if I made a huge mistake. I did get the insurance, and, would be able to get a medical note to get her out of this conference. So I am asking for some advice, should I nix the program knowing her shy personality or let her go to experience a conferance that may be a great experience.
24 - CallmeMaddy
Hey kidsmom--
Don't worry about your kid. I'm not shy at all, but I had a very shy roommate my first year. She ended up having fun. If worst comes to worst, she can come home early. I'm the most talkative person alive and I was nervous all three years. But honestly, don't worry about it. And I don't what these kids are talking about, because I had a blast.
Maddy
25 - kidsmom
Thanks Maddy,
I appreciate you writing me back, And I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. You really should share your experience on the blogs about Lead America, because yesterday, I had spent a few hours reading so many blogs on many different sites about Lead America, and I have to be honest, about 90% of what was written was not good! I should have researched this org. before I signed her up. I also spoke to a teacher from her high school, and she told me it is illegal for a teacher or counsler to give out any information about any student to any type of org. So when Lead America states in its letter that a student is nominated by a teacher or counsler, that alone is a lie. I have that bad feeling in the pit of my stomach not to send her, and as a parent, I have to follow my instinct.
Any body else willing to share? Thank-you
Kidsmom