GREENVILLE — One hundred high school seniors from all eight Darke County school districts gathered at Chenoweth Trails for a day focused on discovering their strengths, exploring careers, and developing the skills to lead.
The Light Foundation and Darke County Economic Development hosted the 2026 Darke County Youth Leadership Conference, bringing together students, business professionals and military veterans for workshops, team-building challenges and conversations about their futures.
Mike Bowers, Darke County Economic Development director, said the partnership offered an opportunity to introduce leadership values to students preparing for college, technical training or the workforce.
As those students consider their next steps, Bowers said, the county wants to help them build the confidence and skills to contribute to their communities.
“You want to instill leadership values in those young students,” Bowers said. “And we’ve got a great group of students that are involved with it this year.”
Bowers linked the effort to the revival of Leadership Darke County, saying the youth conference offers another way to encourage local leadership development.
He credited Olivia Schmitmeyer, career connections coordinator with Darke County Economic Development, and the Light Foundation team for organizing the event.
“A great collaborative effort, and just looking to produce good leadership in Darke County,” Bowers said.
Schmitmeyer, a lifelong Darke County resident, said organizing the conference reflected her desire to give back to local young people while helping them recognize opportunities close to home.
“Living in Darke County my whole life, I have always felt very called to give back to our youth,” Schmitmeyer said.
Bringing students from all eight districts together, she said, helped recognize their accomplishments and demonstrate the support of community members and workforce partners who live, work, and raise families in the county.
Schmitmeyer said the event exceeded her expectations. When she first envisioned the conference and made it a goal through economic development, she wanted to highlight the opportunities available in Darke County.
Partnering with the Light Foundation helped bring that vision to life, she said, praising the sessions and Brantley’s keynote presentation.
Keynote speaker Vince Brantley, owner and chief technology officer of Veritas Culture, brought nearly three decades of military leadership experience to the conference.
Brantley served 28 years in the Army and attained the rank of sergeant major. His assignments included serving as senior enlisted adviser for the Defense Intelligence Agency. At Veritas Culture, he develops strategies and tools to help organizations strengthen their culture and effectiveness.
Brantley said introducing students to perspectives beyond their everyday experiences can have a lasting impact.
“I often wish I had a program like this where people could bring in outside perspectives to help to influence me,” Brantley said. “I got them later on in life, but the earlier you start, you know, the better off you are overall.”
He described participating in the conference as “a great honor and a privilege.”
When asked about military service as an option for young people, Brantley said it can offer opportunities to grow by stepping outside familiar surroundings. He encouraged students to consider their own interests and goals when choosing a path.
“Military service gives you an opportunity to really step outside of your own norms, and that’s where a lot of growth can happen,” he said. “But it’s just one avenue of many.”
For students drawn to service or seeking a different experience, he said, the military can be a place to start.
The conference also featured Todd Gross, CEO and president of Ngenio USA, who led a workshop focused on understanding individual strengths and leadership styles.
Gross, of Bloomington, Indiana, has more than 20 years of experience in leadership and talent development. His session used the MPO Solution, a research-based tool designed to help participants understand their natural behaviors, strengths and communication styles.
His central message encouraged students to lead in ways that reflect who they are.
“Be authentic in your leadership style,” Gross said. “Lead in a way that is natural to you, and come into it understanding it’s a different climate than your parents were in.”
Gross also challenged negative perceptions of young people, saying he sees a generation equipped to adapt and lead.
“Our kids are ahead of our generation and are set up for success better than we were,” he said.
He described today’s students as curious and accustomed to navigating change.
“They have learned to grow and adapt in an evolving environment rather than a static environment,” Gross said. “They’re just far better prepared to be leaders than we were.”
Students put leadership skills into practice through friendly team-building competitions emphasizing communication, collaboration, and problem-solving.
The hands-on challenges required students to work together, build trust, and recognize how individual strengths can contribute to a shared goal.
Schmitmeyer also helped students explore their strengths and career aptitudes through YouScience. The conference included an interactive leadership activity focused on listening, effective communication, and understanding different communication styles.
Troy Eden, the Light Foundation’s chief operations officer, said the conference was designed to give students experiences and ideas they could carry beyond the day’s activities.
“We want to take kids out of their everyday environment and introduce them to new perspectives, new ideas, just new ways of thinking about things,” Eden said.
Eden, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant who served as command chief of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, said he hoped students would reflect on the lessons and find ways to apply them.
Those lessons could include a better understanding of their talents, a new approach to communication or an idea from Brantley’s presentation about finding their passion.
Eden said adults also have a responsibility to understand and support young people.
“We have awesome kids,” he said. “There are communication gaps between different generations. They just learn differently than we do.”
Rather than expecting students to communicate exactly as previous generations did, Eden said mentors should learn how to reach them.
“The responsibility is on us to mentor them, to learn how they talk and talk to them in those terms,” he said.
A lunchtime panel gave students a chance to hear from veterans about their service and careers and ask questions in an informal setting.
Panelists included Gaylen Blosser, a Darke County Veterans Services commissioner representing the Veterans of Foreign Wars; Chief Master Sgt. Tabatha A. Sanders, command chief of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Steve Stebbins, a military veteran retired from the Darke County Sheriff’s Office; and Brantley.
The discussion connected the day’s leadership themes with the experiences of professionals who have served in military and civilian roles.
Terry Flood, Wayne HealthCare’s vice president of marketing and business development, said supporting the conference reflected the organization’s commitment to young people and the community’s future.
“Investing in our youth is essential, and it’s just an honor for Wayne HealthCare to be able to support the Light Foundation and our youth,” Flood said.
Flood also recognized school administrators who nominated students for their leadership capabilities, saying the conference reinforced that students’ voices deserve to be heard.
“It’s phenomenal that we have leaders like them who are going to be leading our future businesses here in the county,” Flood said.
Flood said career exploration can help students recognize opportunities they might otherwise overlook. Health care, for example, includes finance, business development and other nonclinical careers alongside patient care.
Event sponsors included JAFE Decorating Inc., Brethren Retirement Community (BRC), the Light Foundation, Darke County Economic Development Partnering for Success, Midmark, Wayne HealthCare and Dave Knapp Ford Lincoln Inc.
For organizers, the conference offered a chance to help students see those possibilities while connecting them with people willing to guide them.
Eden said that mentorship is a responsibility older generations should embrace as students prepare to navigate an increasingly complex world.
“If we can be here to provide some mentorship,” he said, “then, thank God we can do that.”
