The 24th annual Trail Youth Seminar comes to Casper this weekend, bringing with it 80 high school sophomores from throughout Wyoming.

Casper attorney Rusty Ward heads up the event, after a long tenure as an organizer for the Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Conference, which will be held in Casper the first weekend in June. Ward maintains his support for the HOBY project, but said he felt more comfortable providing a seminar for Wyoming kids that did not cost anything. The HOBY project requires a $150 registration fee.

"Our committee wants to provide Wyoming leadership for Wyoming students at no cost to the student," Ward said. "We wanted the schools to be able to pick a student without having to worry about the budget of the school or the student's family."

The Trails Seminar is affiliated with the Gallop company, the pollsters, and features the use of StrengthQuest. The StrengthQuest program has students perform a 150-question test, which reveals their five signature strengths, out of 34 possible strength themes.

"Too many people spend too much time worrying about their weaknesses," Ward said. "Successful people find their strengths and do things that promote their strengths. The problem is a lot of people tend not to know what their strengths are."

The seminar started Thursday at the Parkway Plaza with an opening speech by state lawmaker Dr. John Barasso. Friday was Law Day, as the students listened to Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank and 7th District Judge Scott Skavdahl, then took part in a mock trial with members of the District Attorney's Office and the Office of the Public Defender.

Today will feature a media panel with representatives from the Star-Tribune, Casper Journal, KCWY-TV, KTWO-TV and KTWO Radio. It will be followed by an education panel and a leadership panel. The program itself will stress volunteerism.

All sessions will be open to the public, but Ward points out the panels are for the students, so they are not open for public participation.