CAMBRIDGE, MA - The Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) announced today that increased support will enable a 40% increase in the number of participants in the second installment of its Latino Leadership Initiative (LLI). Forty college students from seven universities across the country will take part next month in the second LLI, helping prepare the rising generation of Latino leaders for the opportunities and challenges they will face in the coming decades.
The rising seniors who will attend the program were chosen during a highly selective application process. They come from the five universities that participated last year—Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles); University of California, Merced; Texas A&M International University; the University of Houston; and the University of Massachusetts Boston—plus two new additions, the University of Texas–Pan American and Miami Dade College.
The 2011 LLI class will convene in Cambridge on June 25 for a weeklong program that will include classes on negotiation, organizing, public narrative, emotional intelligence, and public speaking. LLI participants will also have opportunities to build relationships with respected Latino mentors from the government, nonprofit, and business sectors.
Faculty for the program will include Andy Zelleke and Marshall Ganz of Harvard Kennedy School; Harvard Divinity School professor Davíd Carrasco; and Georgetown University professor Bob Bies.
Regular teleconferences hosted by CPL will enable LLI participants to continue their leadership development over the ensuing academic year. In addition, the students from each of the seven participating universities will work as a team to design a community service project that will be implemented in collaboration with faculty and/or administration from their home university.
Through the early financial support of Walter Ulloa and Entravision Communications, the LLI successfully launched last year.
“Walter’s courage and vision had everything to do the success of last year’s inaugural program,” said Andy Zelleke, LLI faculty director and lecturer in public policy at HKS. “That success has attracted the attention of a wider circle of individuals and organizations committed to developing the talents of the next generation of Latino leaders. As a result, we are delighted to be able to make this opportunity available to a larger number of students.”
Established through a generous gift from the Wexner Foundation, the Center for Public Leadership is celebrating its tenth anniversary of advancing the frontiers of knowledge about leadership through research and teaching, and deepening the pool of leaders for the common good through cocurricular activities that include skill-building workshops, fellowships, and programming in leadership for social change.