Anytown Leadership Institute Teaches OK Students To Embrace Differences

Applications are open for this year's Anytown Leadership camp. This year's summer camp has a new name and new location.

Dajah Brooks was a delegate to last year's Anytown, she loved it.

"It was everything and more I thought it would be," she said.

Dajah is a graduating senior at Cascia Hall and said she went to Anytown to learn.

"I've always been an advocate of wanting to know more about those around me," she said.

That's what it's about - building an inclusive community based on mutual respect and understanding.

It’s called the Anytown Leadership Institute, and this summer it'll be on the OSU campus in Stillwater.

The organizers, the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, want delegates to experience college campus life for a week.

From across the state, 1,500 high school students have gone through the Anytown experience in its 24 years.

For Dajah, it was a highlight.

"I think the fact that I can go into something like this not knowing anyone, not knowing anything that's going on, really going on, and coming out, not only with the knowledge but coming back with a strong family base is great," she said.

Finding out that the things that make us different, if we learn about them and try to understand them, can ultimately bring us closer together.

This year, the Anytown Leadership Institute is the third week of July at OSU in Stillwater. You can find more information here.