By Clifford L. Williams,
Globe City Editor

Richmond High School’s Student Principal of the Year program, which is designed to encourage students to demonstrate leadership abilities by serving as principal for one day, recently received recognition at the International Mentoring Association Conference.

    The unique program was developed by Richmond’s 21st Century Mentors Foundation (CMF). Organizers say that the group’s main objective is to make the program available to all schools nationally as a way to help give students a sense of responsibility.
    Seventeen-year-old Berta Remo, a 4.5 GPAsenior at Richmond High School, received the distinguished honor of being named the first student principal of the year.
    Sammie Hill, a community relations worker at Richmond High who co-founded the CMF, and Richmond police officer Danny Harris, a high school resource officer, recently took the Student Principal of the Year program on the road to Las Vegas, where they attended the International Mentoring Association Conference.
    Both Hill and Harris conducted a workshop at the conference about their program. “Word of mouth got around about our program, and the IMA were interested in finding out more,” said Hill. “We conducted a workshop for about 30 people, although over 2,000 were exposed to our program during the two-day conference.”
    During the workshop, Harris discussed how the program could be adapted to other schools nationally and internationally. “I talked about target populations and how we work day to day with students in West Contra Costa County,” he said. “I also discussed the program’s impact on youth locally and how it would benefit students abroad. A lot of great ideas came out of the conference.”
    Conference representatives from India, the Philippines, British Columbia, Japan and Canada mutually agreed to implement the program in their designated high schools.
    Both Hill and Harris received international certificates of recognition for their program. Hill also accepted a certificate on behalf of Romo for her trailblazing role in Richmond High’s program.
    Hill met IMA President Joseph Pascarelli at the conference, and he agreed to endorse Hill’s “mentor song” as IMA’s theme song, making it the first international mentor theme song in the organization’s history.
    For more information on the Student Principal of the Year program, contact Hill at (510) 860- 1048 or SamLeeHill@aol.com.