x
  
  
Posted: 5/13/10

TAMIU Students Selected for Inaugural Leadership Program at Harvard

 

TAMIU Logo
 

Six TAMIU students chosen to participate in inaugural program

Laredo, TX— With Latinos expected to comprise 30% of the U.S. population by 2050, University officials today announced a collaboration with the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government to help develop the rising generation of Latino leaders.

Six students from Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) have been chosen from a highly selective application process to take part in this collaboration, which is being called the Latino Leadership Initiative (LLI): Andrea Beattie, Alejandro De La Fuente, Jennifer González, José Lara, Arlyn Martínez and Cynthia De La Miyar. They will be joined by 22 other rising seniors from University of California-Merced, Loyola Marymount-Los Angeles, University of Houston, and the University of Massachusetts–Boston.

The inaugural LLI class will convene in Cambridge, Mass., on June 12 for a week-long program that will include classes on decision-making, negotiation, and public narrative—taught by leading professors from Harvard, Georgetown and Stanford—as well as sessions designed to help students develop greater self-awareness and knowledge of their own strengths and weaknesses as leaders. LLI participants will also have opportunities to build relationships with respected Latino mentors from the government, non-profit, and business sectors.

Regular teleconferences hosted by the Center for Public Leadership will enable the LLI participants to continue their leadership development over the ensuing academic year. In addition, the students from each of the five 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.

TAMIU president Ray Keck said the University is deeply honored that its students have been selected for the singular honor of participation in the Harvard Kennedy School Program.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our students to be part of an inaugural Latino leadership effort that clearly is focused on a future that they will design, implement and indeed lead. Each is an accomplished and gifted student and we, like their tremendously proud parents, are delighted that their strengths and abilities are being so remarkably recognized,” Dr. Keck said.

“The Latino community is young and growing and its success is vital for our country. We see this program as an opportunity to develop the talents of the next generation of Latino leaders and help them connect with each other to form a broader network,” said David R. Gergen, professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School and director of the Center for Public Leadership, who will be a member of the LLI’s teaching team. “But instead of stealing the students from their communities, our goal is to equip them to have a deeper impact on those communities once they return—and to stay connected with them long enough to ensure that the learning sticks,” Gergen explained.

“For this vision, and also for the seed money that has enabled us to launch,” Gergen continued, “we are profoundly grateful to Walter Ulloa, chairman and CEO of Entravision Communications.”

For more information about the LLI, and to stay informed about the students’ community service projects as they take shape, go to:

http://content.ksg.harvard.edu/leadership/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=574&Itemid=153

Click here for more stories focusing on the service and research accomplishments of the administration, faculty and staff of Texas A&M International University.


Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu