Four Lewis-Palmer School District 38 students earned awards Rocky Mountain Youth Leadership Conference, which was held in late June at CSU-Pueblo.

Vaughn Slivka from Lewis-Palmer was the Philip Madden Honor Graduate; Christian Foss-Barratt, who attends Palmer Ridge, captured the Alfred Champion (Persistence & Reason) award; Viktor Duling from Lewis-Palmer was the David Claytor (Grace & Humility) winner and Rylee Watts from Lewis-Palmer earned the Robert Meier (Respect & Responsibility) award.

Each year 11 attendees earn individual awards.

The conference is a five-day in-residence program that aims to build informed citizen leaders and focuses on leadership, patriotism, and the free enterprise system. Students must be nominated by their high school and participate in lecture, group competition and individual performance. Conference curriculum emphasizes character, leadership, discipline, problem solving, speaking and writing.

Eighty-seven students from 32 high schools comprised this year’s class. Seventy- five percent of the graduates came from El Paso County schools and 17 of them attend Lewis-Palmer School District 38 (L-PSD38) two high schools (seven from Lewis-Palmer and 10 from Palmer Ridge).