Nearly 200 Iowa high school students will learn leadership skills this week at Iowa State.

The seventh annual “Teen Get A Grip (GAG) Conference” began Wednesday. Teenagers ranging from ages 14 to 18 came from all over Iowa to improve their leadership abilities and learn to avoid peer pressure.

There will be two sessions — Wednesday to Friday and Saturday to Monday — in the Memorial Union. The students will be attending a number of events and activities during their session.

They will learn how to deal with the pressures of using alcohol, abusing drugs and driving under the influence. They will also be encouraged to be leaders in their communities.

There are a number of staff members working with the conference, including four Department of Public Safety officers.

Lisa Safaeinili, manager of safety and health at DPS, has been directing the conference since it began in 1991.

Nicki Guard, an Iowa State student and one of the staff members at the conference, said the kids will be going through a very intense session.

One of the activities is the “Break-out Session” in which students break up into small groups and learn teamwork.

Together, they work on a plan to change teen drinking behaviors in their communities. They decide which groups and plans will be needed to make efforts successful in their communities.

Guard said the kids can use what they have learned at the conference in everyday life.

“We want to empower the students to take the leadership and team-building skills they learned back to their community,” she said.

Many staff members have been through the program as students. Dee Morobe, a high school student from Iowa City, came to the conference last year and is a staff member this year. Last year she said she learned teamwork and what to do in certain situations, like being offered drugs at a party.

“I wanted to help others who came to the conference,” Morobe said. “I’ve learned from [the kids] as well.”

The program is funded through the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, and all the kids receive scholarships to come to the conference, Safaeinili said.

Since its beginning, the conference has brought in over 1,000 students. About 200 come each year, Safaeinili said.

Safaeinili said DPS director Loras Jaeger supports the GAG Conference because “it brings Iowa high school students from across the state to ISU to give them leadership skills — to build coalitions with adults to make changes in their home towns.”

Jaeger said the students at the conference are those who have “voiced an interest in leadership.”

They apply for conference attendance through their high schools. The reaction of the students “has always been very positive,” he said.

“Many students [who go through the program] come back to ISU as freshmen,” Safaeinili said. “It’s a really fun, interactive program. It connects them with ISU government agencies in a fun, interactive way.”