Photo 1: Pictured above, W.Va. Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, left, and Summer Henson, head of the junior council, do the “Wigalow” camp song as the audience cheers them on during the West Virginia Association of Student Councils high school leadership workshop. Photo 2: Tennant shows her name tag which she wears during all appearances because she does not take it for granted that everyone knows who she is. The workshop was held at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

West Virginia’s Secretary of State paid a visit Wednesday to a camp where she first learned leadership skills that continue to help in her present role.

Natalie Tennant spoke to high school students in the West Virginia Association of Student Councils who are in town for a week-long summer leadership workshop.

“Tennant’s first experience at the camp occurred before she was on student council. She went on to serve as a student council representative and then student body president and Student Action Education (SAE) president.

“I wanted to be a leader,” she said. “Now, I get to be a leader again.”

In November 2008, Tennant was elected as W.Va. Secretary of State and said the lessons learned in high school translate into her present work.

“People tend to support what they themselves create,” she said. This statement Tennant first learned at the student council camp 25 years ago and she understood it then as, “You have to get people involved.”

She took that to heart as student body president, organizing a project that sent certificates and a piece of candy to every student at North Marion High School telling them they were special.

“Now, as a statewide leader, how do I let people feel they are involved?” she asked the students.

Tennant said she strives to have an open and engaging government and one of the avenues she uses to accomplish this is technology.

“I’m the only statewide official on Twitter,” she said.

Tennant also said she uses Facebook and plans are being made to update the SOS’s website.

Besides involving citizens, Tennant said she also believes in delegating projects to staff.

“I know how important delegating is,” she said. “You have to allow them to create it and you have to allow them to be a leader and take ownership of it, even if you created it. I’m willing and ready to hand off something to someone else.”

In doing this, Tennant said she finds people are sometimes afraid to share ideas but she encourages her staff to keep coming back with new ideas.

Tennant said she brings a new perspective to state government as the youngest and only female member of the board of public works, which includes the governor, treasurer, auditor, agriculture commissioner and attorney general.

“It’s my duty to continue to put that (new approach) out there,” she said. “It’s what I do.”

Growing up outside the small community of Fairview in Marion County, Tennant found her experiences there and as the first female Mountaineer in West Virginia University history taught her a lot.

As a former Super Dog husky mascot for North Marion, Tennant said she did not try out for the Mountaineer mascot for attention but because she enjoyed being a school mascot.

“I just thought it would be cool,” she said. “I was the Super Dog and I could shoot a gun.”

So Tennant applied, answering essay questions and than having an audition. She was one of two female WVU students to apply that year.

After she was chosen, many people’s feelings were against having a female Mountaineer.

“They said go back to the kitchen and make babies,” Tennant said. “People would call me names and used to throw things at me. That was truly a character building experience for me.”

As a high school basketball player, Tennant’s team won one game her freshman year, losing one game by a 100 points.

“Humility builds character,” she said. “Be proud of where you’re from and use that as the fire in your belly too.”

Although having achieved success in the recent election, Tennant said she has to keep working.

“Neither success or failure is ever final,” she said.

In her campaigns for student body president, Tennant said she talked to groups that no other candidates did, earning their support.

In her campaigns for secretary of state, Tennant used those same ideals.

Showing her name tag on her suit, Tennant said she doesn’t take it for granted that people know who she is.

Tennant also touched on integrity in public officials.

“I told the staff I would never knowingly ask them to do anything immoral, unethical or illegal,” she said. In turn, it is her staff’s responsibility to know those standards.

State official have ethics rules to follow, such as not accepting gifts over $25. The secretary of state’s office has four vehicles at their disposal, but for Tennant’s trip to Buckhannon, she drove her own station wagon because she was going to visit family.

Being in a leadership position has many challenges.

“You will find out there are pressures because people know you’re always in that position 24/7,” she said.