Six members of the Manchester High School Young Men’s Leadership group attended a recent leadership conference for young men of color. Front row, from left, Nuredin Matrapazi, Keion Harris and Hussin Razaq. Back row, from left, Leonel Cruz, Keyjay Kendall-Bey and Caleb Nketiah. (Michael Walsh, The Hartford Courant)

By Michael Walsh

APRIL 7, 2015, 10:34 PM

Members of the Manchester High School Young Men’s Leadership Group attended a leadership conference at Trinity College in Hartford on March 16. The students not only attended the Connecticut Student Leadership Conference for Young Men of Color, they also worked closely with the Connecticut Association of Schools to facilitate many of the day’s workshops. Caleb Nketiah, an 18­year­old senior, said the conference was an eye­opening experience. “The biggest thing I got out of it was the exposure,” Nketiah said. “Sometimes you go through life having a onetrack mind. When you go to a conference like that filled with so much positivity and information, it kind of makes you open your mind up that there’s a lot that you can accomplish. It was an awakening.”