Learning from LeaderShape

Mike Severy, currently serves as the Program Coordinator, for The LeaderShape Institute at the University of North Carolina-Pembroke. We came across his post about us, and with his permission along with studentbranding.com, we are republishing it here.

We were honored and sincerely appreciative for Mike's comments. You can find Mike's original post online here. Thanks Mike, for being a great partner with us!

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I spent this past weekend in Chicago completing Program Coordinator Training for LeaderShape. Here are three transferable learning points I gained from my time with the LeaderShape Staff and some opportunities for you to make LeaderShape a meaningful experience for you:

Communicate your Brand Consistently and Constantly

LeaderShape’s focus is on teaching young adults to lead with integrity. We started the first evening with a welcome ceremony, and within the first thirty seconds, the president started talking to the group about leading with integrity and the values and beliefs LeaderShape espouses. Every time he spoke throughout the weekend, the same held true – within thirty seconds, he was talking about leading with integrity.

All of the LeaderShape staff members revisited and practiced their values. While each individual person had a sense of self that was uniquely his or her own, the common denominator between all of them was evident. Their transparent, intentional and unapologetic focus on their brand, values and mission was refreshing.

What would our interactions look like if we were positive, transparent and intentional about sharing our beliefs and brand?

Ask Others to Own and Share your Brand

Word of mouth is often cited as the strongest method of information dissemination, but how do you actually use this method effectively? A few years ago, LeaderShape developed their ‘I am LeaderShape’ phrase and gave their brand away to everyone who participated in the program.

The effect had two major consequences. First, it solidified the learning and expectations for participants, essentially requiring them to reflect on: If ‘I am LeaderShape’, and LeaderShape members believe in leading with integrity, then I better follow through. Secondly, by giving away ownership of their brand they extended LeaderShape beyond a pass-through experience for participants into something each individual incorporated into their own being. By doing so, LeaderShape developed a tribe of followers who became disciples of the LeaderShape experience.

What are you doing that is so exciting others want to widely share positive stories about and for you?

Evolve your Brand

While having a strong sense of the LeaderShape brand, the staff actively sought and were open to feedback about their programs and ideas. Their goal was to accurately align perception with reality and further solidify the ownership of their brand by asking you to help define it.

How often have you asked for feedback about your brand?

More importantly, how often have you incorporated constructive feedback to refine and evolve your brand in a manner that holds true to your core beliefs while staying fresh and relevant?

Looking for a Meaningful Experience?

College Students:

LeaderShape, designed for college students, is a an interactive, energizing, and unique experience that includes six days of non-stop self-discovery and learning from practical experiences to build your leadership concepts and abilities.

As an undergraduate, you can participate in two ways. If your campus sponsors one of the campus-based sessions you can register to participate with the coordinating office on your campus. Campus-based sessions occur at a variety of times throughout the academic year. If your campus isn’t listed (and even if it is) you can apply to attend one of the National Sessions. Most of the National Sessions take place at Allerton Conference Center in Monticello, Illinois 20 minutes from the University of Illinois. New for 2010, LeaderShape also plans to offer sessions in Atlanta and Boston to help alleviate travel costs for participants who live further away. A west coast session is also under consideration.

If you choose to apply for a national session, check for sponsors on campus to help offset your cost. The usual suspects include many student affairs offices especially student life, student government, leadership, service, programming and residence life offices. Be sure to check with your academic department (or college on larger campuses) to see what travel funds might be available to support your participation. If all else fails, do a quick search for student travel funding or leadership and see what comes up on your university site.

Graduate Students:

The Cluster Facilitator position is ideal for graduate students. Utilizing your experience, you will be asked to facilitate a group of 8-12 students through the LeaderShape experience. The days are long but incredibly valuable for your personal and professional development. Applications for both campus based and National Sessions can be found on the LeaderShape website. Applications are due by 5 pm Friday, December 11.

High School Students:

LeaderShape is exploring programs that would target high school students, and you can follow their progress and any potential announcements at their website. For now though, do your research on LeaderShape and have the program be an aspirational experience for you until you reach college.

Are you LeaderShape? What do you think? Make it a good day.

Author:

Mike Severy is the Director of Student Life at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Managing an office responsible for student organizations and major campus programs, his role at UNCP is to help students create and find the meaningful experiences in their lives. He views his work through the lens of student leadership development believing that students are developed over time through a series of meaningful experiences.

Cluster Facilitator Applications for 2010

We are excited to announce that applications to serve as a Cluster Facilitator for a 2010 national session of The LeaderShape Institute are now available!

Please visit our website to learn more, including how to apply.

A Quote So Good, It Has To Be Shared

An incredible quote from MIT President Emeritus Paul Gray re: The LeaderShape Institute from 2007 - http://bit.ly/4vQhUS

"I've been here almost 50 years, and I've been almost everything--an undergraduate, a Ph.D. student, a professor, president. But I never really understood how magnificent our young people are until now, after having spent six days away with them at MIT LeaderShape," said President Emeritus Paul Gray, who formerly participated as a cluster facilitator."

At MIT, they spend all their time trying to be what we put forward as the model: the intensely rational, smart, driven person. Too often, they don't get to be or explore all those other things that are life," Gray said.

PDF link - http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/techtalk51-15.pd

Put It On Your Resume

Every so often I do a Google search on "LeaderShape" just to see what's out there and what's new. I'm always surprised what I find.

It could be pictures, videos, or people talking about their experience - most often from The LeaderShape Institute.

With more than 34,000 graduates of The LeaderShape Institute and over 4,000 faculty, LeaderShape is a community that continues to grow.

I have also noticed that many people list on their online resumes that they have attended, participated, or serve as a faculty member for The LeaderShape Institute.

Putting LeaderShape on your resume is one of the best ways to increase your accountability to leading with integrity and to let others know that your a committed graduate.

So go on...and put it on your resume.

Mike

Another "Greatest Generation" is on the way!

We often get great resources from our campus partners. This is another one.

Dr. Becky Bradley, Director of Student Life and Leadership from Scottsdale Community College, currently serves as the Program Coordinator for the Maricopa Community Colleges session of The LeaderShape Institute in the Phoenix area.

In her email to us she said, "Before clicking and reading it, however, click and read the first link, which is referred to in the second link – just helps to provide a bit of background. For those of us in higher education, I think the commentaries add some additional emphasis and hope to what it is that we do."

1. http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/01/new-greatest-generation-leadership-innovation-bennis.html

2. http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/08/observations_from_a_student_le.html

Thanks for sharing Becky!

We look forward to working with another great generation.

Mike

Miniature Earth

Recently a LeaderShape Program Coordinator, Lauren Cove from the University of Texas-Austin, shared with us a great resource.

In her note, she said, "It's a great video showing what the world would look like if we had 100 people representing the entire world population." For Lauren, it serves as great motivation to be fortunate for her opportunities and drives her to be motivated to work toward a better world.

We agree with her and wanted to pass along the video to you.

http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm

Go out and make a difference today.

Mike

World of Possibility

During The LeaderShape Institute we spend a lot of time thinking about what we are passionate about where we want to spend our time. We then create a world of possibility where our time is spent working on the things we are most passionate about. When we are in that world of possibility our mind wanders to amazing places and creates great things. However, once we leave LeaderShape it might be difficult for us to work in our every day world while at the same time living in that world of possibility.

Last month while I was visiting a camp and conference center in Prescott, Arizona I met two amazing people Mike and Corky. They are the on-site caretakers for the Anytown Camp and Conference Center.

Mike and Corky are able to live in that world of possibility everyday. They loving refer to the Anytown Camp and Conference Center as “camp”. Their hearts and souls are there at camp. Now they have not always been as fortunate to work in a place that directly aligns with their passions but now that they do they could not be happier. They work diligently to serve the participants of their camps; making sure that everyone who comes to there is well feed (yes the food is DELICIOUS!!) and has all of their needs met so that they can fully participate in their program.

At camp there is no hierarchy. Mike and Corky do what needs to get done. While I was visiting the camp, a large delivery truck came by and accidentally knocked out the phone lines to camp. No sooner than it happen, Mike got out his ladder and fixed the phone line. When I saw him doing this, I asked him why he did not call someone from the phone company to come and fix it. He smiled and said, “Well, that would take to long, I don’t want any of our participants to miss an emergency phone call from their parents. Plus, this is what I do and I love it!”

It was the last part of what Mike said that has stuck with me. “This is what I do and I love it.” Mike and Corky have been fortunate to find a career that aligns with their passions. They don’t do this work for recognition or fame. They do this job because they love it. They are amazing examples of servant leaders.

As you think back on your experience at The LeaderShape Institute, where does your mind wander as you think about that world of possibility you want to create? What steps can you take today to bring a little of that possibility into your every day world?

Kristen Y.

Pull Your Manual Off The Shelf

So when's the last time you've actually looked at your LeaderShape binder?

I thought so.

I find myself in conversations with individuals who have participated in The LeaderShape Institute who say things like "oh, I still have my manual on the shelf."

I want to invite you to dust off your binder and reconnect with the lessons learned. Track someone down from your family cluster. Rework your vision and bring it up-to-date. Commit to one thing you wanted to do, but just haven't had time.

It's never to late to begin something you've always wanted to do.

Mike

Aha Moment Campaign

The Mutual of Omaha is sponsoring this really cool and interesting campaign called The Aha Moment. For the campaign, an Aha Moment is is a defining moment where you gain real wisdom - wisdom you can use to change your life. They have been traveling around capturing the Aha Moments of people all over the country. How amazing is that? These moments are recorded and posted for viewing on their website. Check it out! I find watching the videos to be inspirational and uplifting.

We learned about the Aha Moment when the LeaderShape staff members were invited to participate during the campaign's stop in Champaign, IL. A couple of us had the opportunity to record our own LeaderShape Aha Moments. We hope you enjoy them (just click the links below).

This posting is not a shameless plug to check out our videos. No, I want more than that from this entry. I want to encourage (challenge?) each of you to take some time to share your Aha Moment! You can be part of the campaign and do so on the Aha Moment website. You can also do this in other ways, anytime you wish. Write about it. Create art about it. Talk about it. Sing about it. Create an interpretive dance about it - whatever! Just Share It. Put it out into the world. Change your life. Change our world.

Kristen H.


Kristen Y's Aha Moment

Kristen H's Aha Moment

Palmer Award Recipients!

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
—Harriet Tubman (1820-1913); American escaped slave, abolitionist, humanitarian


This year's Palmer Award recipients have been selected and notified...and they certainly are impressive! It's difficult to truly capture all of the passion they have and all of the accomplishments they have made here, but please read on to learn a little bit about each recipient.

Alexis Dennis (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Alexis's experience with the Sunflower County Freedom Project, a nonprofit organization that offers students intense academic enrichment and leadership development opportunities, inspired the vision she created at the LeaderShape Institute in 2008. Her vision is for the women and girls in the Mississippi Delta to have the skills, knowledge, and confidence to become successful and take risks in order to pursue their passions and dreams. One of Alexis's steps towards this vision was the creation and execution of the "Health and Self" camp, a six day after-school program that led young people through a series of modules covering topics such as goal setting, values identification, healthy relationships, media stereotypes,and health related topics.

Kathryn Rice (Alma College)
While at LeaderShape, the vision that Kathryn began was to establish health clinics in developing countries that would provide free basic care and children's books to patients, making an impact on both healthcare and illiteracy. Since attending LeaderShape in 2008, one of the steps that Kathryn has taken was to spend a month in Ghana looking after newborns in the Osu Children's House orphanage. While there she came across the World Light of Ministry and began teaching at the school each day before she went to the orphanage.

Congratulations to Alexis and Kathryn!

We also want to take a moment to thank all of the LeaderShape graduates who shared their stories with us through this process. It is wonderful to learn about the impact you are making on the world. Thank you...and don't stop!


** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
The Palmer Award is given out each year to two LeaderShape graduates who have participated in a national or campus-based session during the previous year.  The award is given to recognize the achievements of those individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to bringing their vision to reality after attending a session of The LeaderShape Institute.  The recipients of these awards receive $1000 in honor of their achievements.

The Palmer Awards are provided from an endowment gift donated to the Alpha Tau Omega Foundation by Dr. Edmund T. Palmer, Jr.  Alpha Tau Omega created the concept of The LeaderShape Institute in 1986 and the Alpha Tau Omega Foundation funded the creation of the initial curriculum design for The LeaderShape Institute. 

Kristen H.

No More Trouble

I am a big fan of Twitter. The people that I follow bring me laughter, recipes, crafts, ideas, and inspiration. One of my favorites to follow is Ann Curry, from my beloved Today Show. She tweeted this video which I've now watched three times in a row. It gives me a sense of hope and unity. What do you think of it?

FBL

Each day I get a quote from the Foundation for a Better Life. If you haven't checked out their website, I encourage you to do so. It's great for a little shot of inspiration and hope. I thought I'd share today's quote with you all.

"Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go."

Natalie Godlberg; author, motivational speaker

-Kristen H.

Palmer Award Deadline - June 30, 2009

Greetings from a sunny day in Champaign, IL! This is a friendly reminder that applications for the Palmer Award are due at the end of this month. Yes, people! June is here. 

If you are 2008 graduate of The LeaderShape Institute and you have been making things happen in regards to your vision, click below! We can't wait to read about all of your amazing accomplishments.

Palmer Award Application

Guy #3

Some of us in the LeaderShape office subscribe to Seth Godin's blog. The entry we received today included this video. Watch the video. Read Seth's blog entry. Start a movement. 

Guy #3

 

Tomorrow’s Headlines…..What a Wonderful World!

Hi from Day 4 of The LeaderShape Institute at Elmhurst College!

It is quiet around our camp site as our 40 participants are experiencing an earthquake! So, in my down time I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect a little on what I am experiencing this week.

As I sit in the Learning Community, I am surrounded by a world of possibility. The headlines on the walls talk about a world in which no one goes hungry and children love to learn. They describe a society that is free of discrimination and filled with compassion for others. They have created college campuses that provide outstanding educational experience both in and out of the classroom.

I could go on and on about the world in which these participants are going to create. But what is really resonating with me right now is that that these headlines tell us stories of change both big and small. They tell us stories of passion and persistence. These headlines are rooted in the heart of each individual that developed them. They have taken the risk to give a voice to their passions and values in this community and they have been supported. They recognize that the road ahead will be full of twist and turns, ups and downs but they are determined to stay the course because it is important.

At the same time, I realize that this same experience happened for many of other young adults this past month as they experienced LeaderShape. The potential that comes from all of these people following their hearts and pursuing their passion is overwhelming to me but is oh so energizing. As I sit in this Learning Community and envision the world that these individuals are going to create, I can hear the Louis Armstrong song in the background as it ends saying, “And I think to myself….what a wonderful world.” Indeed that is true, what a wonderful world!

Kristen Y.

LeaderShape Grad Determined to Make a Difference

University of Michigan Wolverine, LeaderShape graduate, and Tampa Bay Buccaneer Brian Griese is giving back as a social entrepreneur. The founder of Judi's House, a children's grief support center opened in honor of his mother, spoke at the "Champion's for Children's Hearts" campaign at the University of Michigan's golf course.

Read about Brian here!

UT LeaderShape Grad Named 2009 Rising Star

Another LeaderShape grad is making a difference.

Piryx Inc. Founder, Tom Serres, now shares the title of Rising Star with past Rising Stars Karen Hughes and George Stephanopoulos.

Campaign & Elections’ Politics magazine announced on May 20, 2009, Tom Serres, Founder/CEO of Austin-based Piryx Inc, as one of the 2009 Rising Stars. One of the most prestigious honors in politics, the award goes to people 35 or under who have already made a significant mark in political consulting or advocacy. The magazine chose 10 Democrats, 10 Republicans and seven nonpartisan leaders this year out of a pool of several hundred nominees. The Rising Stars will be honored on June 12 in Washington D.C.

Past Rising Stars include Karen Hughes, George Stephanopoulos, David Axelrod, Paul Begala, Donna Brazile, James Carville, Rahm Emanuel, and Laura Ingraham.

“Capping off an historic election year, we received a record number of nominations for this year’s Rising Stars,” said James Klatell, managing editor of Politics. “With so many exceptional young people working in politics today, this was an exceedingly difficult process.”

Tom Serres, 27, is one of the seven nonpartisan leaders recognized this year. Serres is the entrepreneur behind Piryx, a social commerce platform aimed at empowering the little guys of the political world with online tools.

Piryx empowers users with technology to effectuate political and social change. Their web platform offers political aspirants the online tools needed for faster and easier compliance and fundraising, a social networking infrastructure with voters, and other political applications and resources needed for any campaign. Whether Barak Obama or Joe Blow, Piryx presents an affordable web platform to make a difference.

"Our mission is to ignite much needed involvement among the voter community, while allowing candidates at all levels to have the tools and information they need for an equal chance on Election Day," says Piryx CEO Tom Serres.

For a complete list of the 2009 Rising Stars, visit http://www.politicsmagazine.com/rising-stars-2009

The University of Texas-Austin has been a partner with LeaderShape since 1997 and will hold their 29th session of The LeaderShape Institute in May of this year.

Michigan Tech LeaderShape Gets Highlighted

Congratulations to Michigan Tech!

Michigan Tech's session of The LeaderShape Institute was highlighted in a great article in the Spring 2009 Michigan Tech Magazine. Check it out starting on page 4 in PDF or Flash format at: http://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/pr-news/magazine/

Michigan Tech has been a partner with LeaderShape since 1996 and held their 14th session of The LeaderShape Institute in January of this year.

Palmer Award Application Available

Have you or has someone you know been making some awesome progress on a vision that stemmed from a 2008 session of The LeaderShape Institute? Then check this out - and either apply yourself or encourage someone else to!

The Palmer Award

The Palmer Award is given out each year to two LeaderShape graduates who have participated in a national or campus-based session during the previous year (in this case, that's 2008).  The award is given to recognize the achievements of those individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to bringing their vision to reality after attending a session of The LeaderShape Institute.  The recipients of these awards receive $1000 in honor of their achievements. 

The Palmer Awards are provided from an endowment gift donated to the Alpha Tau Omega Foundation by Dr. Edmund T. Palmer, Jr.  Alpha Tau Omega created the concept of The LeaderShape Institute in 1986 and the Alpha Tau Omega Foundation funded the creation of the initial curriculum design for The LeaderShape Institute.  

Palmer Award Application

Keep the Beach Clean

At the 2009 Florida State University/Florida A&M University session of The LeaderShape Institute, the students and faculty participated in five community service projects in the Panama City Beach area. Students worked to improve facilities at the Boys & Girls Club and Salvation Army service sites, collected qualitative data and cleaned up trash as part of the the "Keep the Beach Clean" campaign, and executed a Sea Turtle Safety Awareness campaign through a partnership with the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The participants engaged in discussions regarding the importance of direct and indirect service, investigated various community issues, and formed collaborative partnerships with community agencies. The students had an opportunity to use teamwork and build relationships in order to create positive change.

The PCB Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau just sent us the following media story on our Sea Turtle Safety campaign:

http://www.panhandleparade.com/index.php/mbb/article/students_promote_sea_turtle_awareness/mbb7716419/

My contact at "Keep the Beach Clean" is also working on a press release for our beach clean up project.

Thanks again to you all for making this very special week a reality for our students and faculty.

-Kellie Gerbers

_____________
Kellie Gerbers
Graduate Assistant, Leadership Programs
Center for Leadership and Civic Education
Florida State University
850-644-1435
kgerbers@admin.fsu.edu

You Never Know...

This past weekend was pretty exciting for those of us working in the LeaderShape office. I got a call from one of our Lead Facilitators at Michigan regarding the commencement speech given on Saturday morning. Many of you may know Larry Page who is one of the founders of Google, but many of you might not know that he is a LeaderShape grad from one of the University of Michigan campus-based sessions. Anyway, he mentioned his experience at LeaderShape as having taught him to have a "healthy disregard for the impossible" and serving as a catalyst for his development of Google. His speech was so consistent with what we believe about leadership and being a visionary person that we immediately went to YouTube to see if there was a video of it. One was there within 24 hours.

Not that everyone needs to create a company like Google, but wouldn't it be great if everyone did have a healthy disregard for the impossible and lived their dreams. What an amazing place it would be to live and learn.

As we begin over 40 sessions of The LeaderShape Institute in the month of May, let's hope that all of us can continue our quest to lead with integrity and a healthy disregard for the impossible and that maybe someone sitting in those 40 learning communities will be the tipping point that makes it all happen. Maybe that someone is you. You never know...

Take a few minutes to enjoy Larry's speech. We should all be very proud.

www.youtube.com/leadershape

The Biggest Loser

I love NBC's "The Biggest Loser." My husband and I take time to watch it each week (while eating a healthy snack of course!) and are regularly blown away by what the contestants are able to accomplish. One of the things that I enjoy so much about "TBL" is witnessing the contestants reach what they once perceived as unreachable milestones. In addition to their own commitment, they do this with a lot of support and resources. Awesome support (trainers and teammates) and awesome resources (have you seen that gym?)! Sounds like a pretty great formula for success to me: Commitment+support+resources. 

So it makes me think about what seems unreachable to me. Will I shoot for it anyway? Do you? How strong is my commitment? What about yours? Am I in touch with my support systems? Are you? How about resources? How can this formula help me (an you!) reach your milestone?

We may not be on a tv show, but we can all commit to making ourselves and the world a better place. I'm going for it. Are you?

Kristen H.

Sometimes We Forget

I recently got this quote from a daily e-mail I receive from the Foundation for a Better Life .

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” –Woodrow Wilson

Sometimes in the routine of everyday life, I forget why I am really here. And I don’t mean, here as in sitting at my desk typing this post, but why was I put in this place to do this work. I was talking to a friend about this topic recently and they said they felt the same way. Now their “day job” is much different than mine, but it made me think that this is something that lots of people struggle with.

I believe no matter where you are working, this quote rings true. We are all here to enrich the world. So if this is something that others are contemplating, I figure there have to be ways to remember and not get caught up in the tasks list, phone calls, and emails that consume our daily lives. How do you do it? How do you remember why you are doing the work you do?

Kristen Y

25,000 mornings.

On TV, I recently saw a great commercial. It started with...

"Twenty-five thousand mornings, give or take, is all we humans get."

So what haven't you done, that you want to?

What haven't you said, but want to?

We all need you to be your best. To do the things you dream.

To be the person now, you have wanted to be all along.

The clock is ticking. What will you start today?

Here's the commercial: http://tr.youtube.com/watch?v=ElCe0ILsgLE&feature=PlayList&p=3D527501B8E32A3A&index=0

It's Just Words.

I was in a recent discussion with a friend about marriage and commitment. Our conversation centered around how and why divorce happens. What happens when your partner doesn't end up sharing the same commitment as you? What can you do? As someone who comes from a divorced family, I was particularly intrigued.

My friend said, "In the end, they are just words."

Wow. I had to stop and think about that. Is that really true? My friend and I both want our words to be congruent with what we do - but what happens if and when others don't agree or don't follow through? And certainly I know I'm not perfect and haven't followed through with every single commitment I said I would do. Heck, I'm not even married, so I can't even begin to provide advice regarding marriage.

But this "actions are louder than words" piece is sticking with me - and, I have definitely dealt with it in other areas of life - personally, professionally, etc. I also know I am not alone.

How do you best have conversations with others about congruence? Without leaving them feeling as though you are judging them. Without coming across as "I'm better than you." How can we best teach the next generation of leaders?

Because in the end, it's more than just words.

Mike

Our new manual

Now I'm attempting to blog with a picture from my iPhone. I hope it
works because featured here is the new LeaderShape Institute manual
(modeled by staff member Kristen Y). We think it looks hot! Do you?

Blog posting from email

Greetings!

We are testing out some aspects of Blogger as we work on really getting into a blogging habit. I just learned that you can email a posting and it can either go into drafts or be posted immediately. Apparently you can do the same with photos. How great is that? Especially if we are traveling the world helping young people lead with integrity.

So here I go...this will be my first effort at posting via email. Next will be a posting with a picture from my iPhone.

Kristen H

Looking Forward...

With all of the negative news these days regarding the economy, jobs, etc., it is harder than ever to radiate possibility. I thought I would provide a brief update on what we are working on in Champaign as we look forward.

I could not be more excited about the future. I am very sincere about that and let me tell you why. In 2010, we will roll out an improved curriculum that helps prepare young adults to lead with integrity in the global community. Later this year, we will unveil a new web site that will help to connect the LeaderShape community better than ever and help spread the LeaderShape message. This December, we will hold the first non-English speaking session of The LeaderShape Institute for the Universidad de las Americas in Mexico. I could go on and on...

These tough economic times provide an amazing opportunity for all of us. It provides time for us to clarify our priorities, simplify our lives and purpose, and rededicate to those causes we truly care about. The same holds true for this organization we love so much...LeaderShape. The staff and I are determined to meet these challenges and come out of it prepared to help an additional 31,000 graduates make a difference in the world while leading with integrity. We need our current and future graduates more than ever.

Wouldn't you agree?

Paul