Huron Township teen graduates from FBI Academy’s Youth Leadership Program

*Major Mike Janes from the Fishers Police Department presents Lila Monte with her graduation certificate at the FBI Academy. (Courtesy photo*)

The program focuses on leadership, ethics and personal development, and is designed to benefit motivated young people and future leaders.

By Scott Bolthouse | The Huron Hub
ScottBolthouse@HuronHub.com
Posted Aug. 29, 2023

Lila Monte, 16, recently represented the state of Michigan by completing a “highly selective,” 2023 Youth Leadership Program at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA.

Monte, a junior at Huron High School in New Boston, was among 800 students nationwide who applied for the youth leadership program.

One student from each state was chosen after an intense screening process.

The months-long selection process included a written essay, checking academic transcripts, an assessment of extra-curricular activities and an in-person interview with a panel consisting of law enforcement executives who are graduates from the FBI National Academy.

Applicants must be sponsored by an FBI National Academy graduate, which in this case was her dad, Joshua Monte, who is the deputy police chief in Van Buren Township.

Joshua Monte gave her the idea to apply for the program back in November 2022.

She spent nine days at the FBI Training Academy studying core subject matter, doing daily physical fitness workouts and challenges, participating in hands-on drills with the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), the Tactical Emergency Vehicle Operations Center (TEVOC) the FBI’s EOD unit, listening to guest lectures, and going on several local trips to study historical leaders.

The program focuses on leadership, ethics and personal development, and is designed to benefit motivated young people and future leaders.

Over the course of the program, Monte and her fellow program participants focused on the topics of leadership, managing change, social media, financial literacy, values and choices, fitness & nutrition, time management, firearms training and more.

Monte and her group also traveled to area battlefields and Washington, D.C. to visit several museums and memorials, including Arlington National Ceremony and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“This is the best experience of my life. Today we met the Hostage Rescue Team and K-9 guys, then we shot blue pistols and got to bust open doors with a battering ram. We also participated in hostage situation reenactments. We even got to drive really fast with them in their vehicles and then we sat in the helicopter before watching it take off from close-up. The wind was whipping really hard, and it was super loud – it was so cool,” Monte said of her experience.

At the end of the academy session, each participant was challenged to complete a rigorous Marine Corp. obstacle course nicknamed the “Yellow Brick Road,” not to be mistaken for the one in “The Wizard of Oz.”

This was 6.1 miles and featured mud, barbed wire, climbing walls and other challenges. Upon completion, participants received a yellow brick with their session number on it.

Monte was especially excited to receive her brick because her dad had talked about receiving his brick in 2014 when he attended the Law Enforcement FBI National Academy Session 258, an 11-week course on executive leadership.

The nine-day program finished with graduation ceremonies, lifelong friendships from across the country and lasting memories.

Monte lives with her parents and younger sister in New Boston. She has a 3.9 GPA, is on the school varsity volleyball team and plays 17U club volleyball at LevelUp. She also works at Doc’s Ice Cream in downtown New Boston. Her future career aspiration is to be a pilot or enlist in the armed forces.