A life-changing experience for students and mentors

I

t is the end of summer as I write my quarterly column, and I hope your summer has been as busy and as blessed as mine.

I am writing this in my home in Easton, Pennsylvania, with a view of the woods and our occasional wild turkey—I always marvel at the precise formation wild turkeys have as they march from one area of the woods down to another, before they disappear. Have I mentioned that it is always the male turkeys who lead the processional? Male turkeys first, females second, baby turkeys bringing up the rear. I guess nature hasn’t heard about equal opportunity.

“Not one down moment. The most energetic, beautiful global participants, who helped one another every day.” This is how I would summarize the fourth annual Leadership Summit at the University of Pittsburgh, July 21–24.

Four years ago, the faculty of a great university came to me with a dream we shared—a Hesselbein Global Academy for Student Leadership and Civic Engagement. Dr. Mark Nordenberg, Dr. Kathy Humphrey, Dr. Lee Patouillet, and Dr. James Maher had a vision of global student leadership.

But for them, global student leadership was not enough—civic engagement had to be part of the dream. We asked ourselves: “What would happen if every year 25 university students would be chosen from all over our country, along with 25 university students from all over the world, and come to the University of Pittsburgh?” And from remarkable, distinguished leaders in all three sectors, mentors would be chosen—one for every four or five students—and these student-mentor teams would live together, work together, dream together for four days, engaging in leadership dialogue and providing community service that would change their lives, and ours.

The dream was relived for the fourth time this July as thirteen mentors—including CEOs, nonprofit founders, executive coaches, and a wounded warrior—and our group of global student leaders convened.

Through mentoring relationships, social interaction, and instructional and interactive presentations, 2012 Academy students:

• Used critical thinking skills to address challenges offered by civic engagement sites throughout Pittsburgh

• Developed personal action plans to improve their community or campus, or both

• Developed a collaborative network of great thought leaders

• The compelling author Simon Sinek spoke to us. We learned from him that leadership is not a position or role but a responsibility and a process.

The relationships we built in four days will last a lifetime. I am grateful to the mentors who volunteered their time. I am grateful to the global student leaders who gave us great inspiration and energy. Our hope and intention is to meet again, in 2013—this time, in a gathering of all 250 Summit participants, class of 2009 to 2013. Can you imagine these young global leaders—from Albania to Venezuela—coming together in this global summit? The 2012 group reminded me that I promised to raise the funds for this gathering and I will keep my promise.