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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- The first class of the Lead Ottumwa Leadership Academy is two months into its nine-month-long program and so far, its received great feedback from the community and the participants.

The idea is for the group of 20 to learn about the city of Ottumwa and Wapello County, so that they'll be prepared to take leadership positions in the community come graduation time.

Each month, the group focuses on a different area of concentration.

"In October, we did quality of life, so we had folks from Ottumwa Symphony, the trails, parks, we took a tour of Bridge View and got to see all the background that you don't typically see when you walk in the front door," said Hollie Tometich, Executive Director of the Leadership Academy. "So that was a great day of quality of life day. In November, we had city and county government day, another great day of speakers. We had the mayor come in, a city council member, county supervisors - a great, informative day and the participants really learned a lot and enjoyed it."

Throughout the program, the participants will also work on group projects focused on a community-related event or project. They will present their final project at graduation.

December's area of concentration is local media, so the participants will talk to KTVO about each of their projects, as well as get experience with on-camera interviews. You can see the series of interviews air on KTVO at the end of December.