This year's class has 25 participants, according to Debbye ValVerde, executive director of the chamber of commerce.

“The class is full and we are very excited about that,” ValVerde said.

Leadership skills will coordinated and taught by retired BSISD teacher Vicki Stewart and Rodney Chandler, warden for the Big Spring Federal Correctional Institution.

During the program, which will last 10 months, the group will tour different organizations, such as educational, industrial, agriculture and medical, but ValVerde said that's not all the class will learn.

“They will be meeting new people and becoming a team of leaders that will be ready and willing to play a bigger part in our community,” she said.

The program is held every second Thursday of the month for the next 10 months.

The Leadership Big Spring Class of 2008-2009 is comprised of: Beth Ann Allen, Cornell Companies; Chad Averette, City of Big Spring; Philip Childs, Cornell Companies; Vance Christie – Wells Fargo; Nancy Crenshaw, City of Big Spring;  Bahola DeLeon, VA Hospital; Heather Del Valle, City of Big Spring;  Robert Downing, Western Container; Malinda Flenniken, KBST Radio; Selma Garcia , Federal Prison; Somer Gaskins, First Bank of West Texas; Jesse Griffin, Federal Prison; the Rev. Bernard Gully, Holy Trinity Catholic Parish; Robert Kerr, Texas State Veterans Home; Richard Light, Holy Trinity Catholic Parish; Jason Mims, Howard College; Al Moore, Cornell Companies; Kathy Sheppard, Cattle Feeds, Ltd.; Linda Sjogren, City of Big Spring; Brenda Tubb, Howard County; Derek Wash, Farm Bureau Ins.; Kathy Weldon, SWCID; Michael Willard, Howard College; Leslie Williams, VA Hospital; and Karen Wingert, Big Spring Education Employees FCU.