CMCers, check out this exciting summer opportunity in Tanzania with Young Global Pioneers! Apply by March 26th 2017.

Question: How are you involved with KLI?

Jessica Azerad (JA): I am the Team Lead for the Programs Team, which means that I help put on programs for CMC students wanting to enhance their leadership and social innovation skills. But as a Team Lead in general, I work with Pema and Mitch to put on community building events for the KLI staff.

Pema Donyo (PD): As a Team Lead, I am responsible for planning programs for KLI student employees and building KLI’s community. I’m also the Lead Research Assistant, which involves guiding the research team on different studies of undergraduate leadership development.

Mitchell Gaiser (MG): I am the Team Lead for the Institute Assistant team which includes Journalist and Social Media Assistants. I help to represent the functional area of KLI Institute Assistants and work to build community among KLI student employees and staff.

Question: How has KLI helped you develop your leadership?

JA: When I started working at KLI, I knew close to nothing about anything. I remember going to team meetings and being too afraid to give my opinion. I remember looking at all the tasks that needed to be done for every program and not imagining how it would all get done. But now I’m the head of the Programs Team, I set the agenda and lead the meetings. It’s my responsibility to make sure that everyone is staying on top of their work, getting help when they need it, and that they’re having fun in the process. Working at KLI has made me more accountable, taught me a lot about project management, and overall made me comfortable in any work environment.

PD: It made me realize the importance of listening to others. Everyone should feel like what they want in their experience at KLI is addressed. For example, I’ve worked with Courtney Chan ’17 on the Research Team since we were both freshmen. Our roles and responsibilities have increased since then, but that was through communicating to senior Research Assistants or the Research Coordinators about what work we were interested in. Now that I’m on the other side, I want to make sure I’m also being receptive to what KLI employees would like from the Institute and from us as Team Leads.

MG: I’ve attended so many KLI events that put me face to face with some great leaders. These events include the Kravis-de Roulet Conference (KDR), the Women and Leadership Alliance Workshop (WLA), Board Meetings, and Unscripted: My CMC Narrative, just to name a few. Hearing the speakers at KDR and hearing about the experiences from alumni at WLA have inspired me in so many ways, including developing my leadership. Additionally, facilitating Unscripted and meeting many of the presenters at these events have helped with my public speaking and networking skills. KLI is an amazing institute with an incredible staff and I am so grateful for the opportunities KLI has given me.

Question: What are you looking forward to this semester working as a Team Lead?

PD: Meeting the new hires! And picking out food for the student lunches. I loved the student coordinators last year, Bridget Moran ’16 and Ted Hall ’16, and want to help continue the awesome legacy they left behind.

MG: I am excited to plan some fun events with Pema and Jessica! We are thinking of possibly having a beach day, a trip to Dave and Busters, doing a KLI March Madness competition, and tons of other things that will foster a strong KLI community.

Question: How do you define leadership?

JA: I would define leadership as the ability to motivate others (or yourself) toward completing a certain goal.

PD: Leadership is understanding what others need and being in a position to make it happen. One leadership skill I’ve learned is delegating tasks while still being respectful of others’ time (in school projects especially). I once assigned too much work to a group member and this person wasn’t able to complete it on time. It was on me, and I’ve learned now to be aware of others’ time limitations.

MG: I define leadership as the ability for one to navigate his or her own life. In accomplishing this, others are affected as well: people typically look up to those who seem as though they have everything together and can serve as a role model for their life. Being able to do this is incredibly difficult and I hope to one day have a complete set of leadership skills that enable me to serve as a leader.

Question: How have your leadership skills help you overcome an obstacle?

JA: Leadership skills come in many varieties: problem solving, critical thinking, accountability, decision making, and others would all contribute to helping someone overcome an obstacle. All of the KLI Programs require a lot of logistical planning and over the years I’ve gotten better at predicting the setbacks before they happen, and being prepared to face them head on. I’ve learned how to roll with the punches, when food delivery is late, when someone is absent and I need to fill in to give a presentation, just when something goes not so according to plan, that’s where real leadership skills have to come out to the forefront. This past SLE, the logistic coordinator and I were supposed to arrive to the site three hours before the students, but heavy traffic made it so that we were only there 45 minutes beforehand. With a hundred things to set up and only two people to do it, it was a mad dash everywhere. But we kept a level head, prioritized our tasks, trusted that we each were doing what was needed without constantly monitoring each other, and when the students arrived everything went smoothly.

MG: I have used my leadership skills such as presenting, networking, and public speaking that I have developed to overcome one of my own personal obstacles which was a fear of talking in front of people. I volunteered to facilitate a KLI event called Unscripted: My CMC Narrative and found out that I’d have to give a short speech. I was really nervous but I did well and this gave me the confidence to speak in front of others. This past summer, I was put on the spot by my boss’s boss at my internship and had to give an improvised speech in front of about 40 employees who I didn’t know at all, and I did great! I wasn’t nervous because of the skills I have learned here at KLI and I delivered a speech that was both informative of what I had been learning, and also pretty funny evident by how many chuckles I got out of the audience.

To learn more about the KLI Team Leads, you can check out their biographies here. We look forward to a successful year ahead!

KLI welcomes Gemma Bulos to the KLI Team! Gemma is a multi award-winning serial social entrepreneur (SocEnt) having launched three organizations in three continents prior to joining the KLI staff. As the Founding Director of the Global Women’s Water Initiative, she trains grassroots women in Sub-Saharan Africa to become water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) technicians, trainers and social entrepreneurs. GWWI was shortlisted for the Humanitarian Water and Food Award and Gemma was named one of the Top 10 Water Solutions Trailblazers in the world by Reuters Foundation. Prior to stepping in to lead GWWI, Gemma co-founded A Single Drop for Safe Water, developing income-generating community-led water service organizations in disaster prone regions of the Philippines. For this innovation, Gemma received international accolades including Echoing Green as one of the Best Emerging SocEnts in the World; Best SocEnt in the Philippines by Ernst Young; Most Influential Thought Leader and Innovative Filipina in the United States by Filipina Women’s Network; and Best SocEnt in Asia by the Schwab Foundation with a special recognition at the World Economic Forum. Her programs also won accolades including the Silicon Valley Tech Museum Tech Award sponsored by Applied Materials and Warriors of the UN Millennium Goals sponsored by Kodak Philippines. Gemma was invited to bring her knowledge and expertise as a Social Entrepreneur en Residence (SEERS) Fellow at Stanford University where she helped launch a social innovation curriculum where students had opportunities to engage and work alongside award-winning SocEnts through service-learning seminar courses, internships and fellowships abroad.

The Hult Prize has recently announced the winning team from Claremont McKenna College that has advanced to the 8th annual regional finals of the competition.

The Hult Prize is a crowdsourcing platform for social good, named one of the top five ideas changing the world by President Bill Clinton and TIME Magazine. The innovative crowdsourcing platform identifies and launches disruptive and catalytic social ventures that aim to solve the planet’s most pressing challenges. This year, the Hult Prize is focused around finding solutions for the millions of people around the world affected by the refugee crisis– a challenge personally selected by President Bill Clinton.

The winning team members from Claremont McKenna College include Sarah Sanbar ’17, Khadija Hassanali ’17, Vanessa Liu ’17, and Umar Farooq ’17.

The team competed in the Hult Prize at Claremont McKenna College’s event on November 12th and built a solution to this year’s challenge, Reawakening Human Potential. Their solution is a refugee run news website.

The team will now move on to compete at the Hult Prize regional finals in March 2017, which are being hosted at one of Hult International Business School’s five campuses in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai. Claremont McKenna College will compete in San Francisco.

Ahmad Ashkar, CEO and Founder of the Hult Prize attributes the success of the competition to the global youth revolution. He said, “We continue to be moved by the large number of students from around the world who are capitalizing on the opportunity to develop business models that target those who are in most need. We wish every team the best of luck and thank Claremont McKenna College for supporting this initiative.”

Following the regional finals, one winning team from each host city will advance to an intensive 8- week summer business incubator, where they will receive mentorship, advisory and strategic planning as they create prototypes and set-up to launch their new social business. The final round of competition will take place in September, where a jury panel will select the annual Hult Prize winner. None other than President Bill Clinton himself will award the USD 1,000,000 Prize to the winning team.

“The Hult Prize is a wonderful example of the creative cooperation needed to build a world with shared opportunity, shared responsibility, and shared prosperity, and each year I look forward to seeing the many outstanding ideas the competition produces.” – President Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States

About the Hult Prize Foundation
The Hult Prize is a start-up accelerator for social entrepreneurship, which brings together the brightest college and university students from around the globe to solve the world’s most pressing issues. The annual initiative is the world’s largest student competition and crowd-sourcing platform for social good, and has been funded by the Hult family since its inception in 2009. To learn more, visit www.hultprize.org.
Press Contacts sjoseph18@cmc.ed

By Linnea Uyeno ’20

As a freshman at CMC, I have had the opportunity to attend a few career-oriented conferences on campus. While they have been informative, they have tended to feature predominantly male panelists. This year’s Women and Leadership Workshop was a completely different experience for me. It was truly inspiring to listen to the success stories of alumnae. They shared perspectives that opened my mind to a variety of different topics: talking about overcoming discrimination, starting families, navigating work-life balance, and becoming leaders in their respective industries.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Victoria Halsey, Vice-President of Applied Learning for The Ken Blanchard Companies, offered a few tips that I would like to share with my female peers who weren’t able to attend the conference. As a writer, I have always understood the power of articulation. However, as a woman, I have never put much thought into how I must express my thoughts differently than a man. Dr. Halsey opened my eyes to this, and started the conference with a framework to help women lead themselves.

“There is this unique confidence characteristic that all women at CMC have. You don’t realize what it means until you are outside of it”, Claudia Raigoza ‘14”

She pointed out the fact that a strong leader must know themselves well before they can lead others. They must know their strengths and weaknesses, so that they can leverage their talents and seek help on their shortcomings. Situational self-leadership is about knowing how to help others help you. “Often times as women we feel like we have to do things ourselves,” said Dr. Halsey. In the workplace, many women feel like a task will be taken away from them if they ask for help. Frequently, women are worried that they have to appear perfect to be seen as equivalent to male coworkers. In fact, “sometimes, asking for help can lead to over-supervision,” proclaimed Dr. Halsey.

In order to combat this, Dr. Halsey suggested that we rephrase the way we ask for help. Instead of saying “I need help” you can say “Do you have five minutes: so that I can run my ideas by you. Then I can make a decision.” By doing this, you are taking ownership, and are giving your leader the opportunity to relax. This language gives you the power to be the decision maker. “We create the leaders we get by the language we use,” said Dr. Halsey.

Dr. Halsey ended the talk on an empowering note. “This language is one of the greatest gifts that you have as a female. It allows you to be able to find the right people, so that you can ask for what you need, rather than just sitting quietly hoping that someone is going to teach you.”

 

After the keynote speech, we all headed to McKenna Auditorium for breakout discussion groups. We had the opportunity to explore different career clusters such as: tech, science, consulting, real-estate, non-profit work, law, finance, entrepreneurship, entertainment, education, and more. Each table had a few alumna that shared her perspective on her specific industry. Then we split up into tables focused on specific questions ranging from asking for a promotion to how to navigate social interactions at work. They offered encouraging words of advice.

I continued the conversation surrounding situational leadership with alumna and Vice President of IT at Warner Bros, Cheri Strelow, and her daughter Katrina Soelter, who works as a Financial Advisor at Wells Fargo Advisors (a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC)

“Be a self-advocate. Know what you want, and don’t be afraid to ask for guidance or for a specific role. I have done this a number of times. My mom and I always talk before I have go into any of those conversations. We will literally script out what I want to say. The best way to do it is to actually to remove yourself a little bit from the situation, so that you can see where the other person is coming from and how your language can support that,” said Katrina Soelter.

The pair exchanged understanding nods, as if they had cracked a secret code to navigating inner-office politics as a female. Both of them have overcome gender barriers. Cheri Strelow was one of the first women to walk the CMC halls, as a part of the Pioneer class of 1980. She later became a trailblazer in the IT industry. Her daughter, Katrina, shared the advice her mom passed on to her.

“I just kept asking [to be an advisor]. My bosses were thinking a five year plan, but I was thinking a two year plan. When I asked, I would come prepared. I would have the script ready. One of the things my mom has taught me is to not be afraid of silence. Don’t be afraid of being succinct, and then waiting. Sometimes silence is more powerful, specifically in workplaces where women might feel like they are not being heard, or if they feel someone has made a comment that may not be appropriate. I believe that sometimes it can be more powerful to look at someone. Then you are not pushy. You have made your point,” said Katrina.

Next, I had the opportunity to interact with alumna and KLI Fellow, Claudia Raigoza’14, who is a Product Manager at First Data Corporation. “There is this unique confidence characteristic that all women at CMC have. You don’t realize what it means until you are outside of it. There is this confidence that is learned [from] being in such a small arena with like-minded and completely different individuals. It’s an experience that I can’t even put into words,” said Claudia.

It’s events like Women and Leadership Workshop that promote this unique confidence. Frankly, I was inspired by the stories of these strong female leaders and trailblazers. I know that they too, have walked down the career pathway. They may not have had the easiest road to the top. However, now that I have seen the success that they have had along the road, I feel like I too can walk along the path with a little confidence in my heeled step.

By Connor Bloom ’19

On Friday March 3rd and Saturday March 4th the Kravis Leadership Institute will be hosting its 25th annual Kravis-de Roulet conference at Claremont McKenna College. This year’s theme, Inclusive Leadership: Transforming Diverse Lives, Workplaces and Societies, will explore questions relating to inclusive leadership: what is it and why does it matter? In a world often divided over contentious issues, what would it be like if we instead listened to each other’s stories and sought to empathize with one another’s life experiences? How might these skills help us construct a more inclusive worldview? Could inclusion and inclusive leadership hold the keys to transforming organizations and even societies? These questions and more will be explored during the two-day conference. The conference design will include many opportunities for dialogue, Q&A, interactive learning, and idea sharing with speakers and participants.

The conference kicks off with a welcome address surrounding the theme of Envisioning a More Inclusive World by Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Executive Director at the National Institute for Civil Discourse, at 11:30 a.m. in the Security Pacific Room, M.M.C. Athenaeum. Throughout the rest of the conference, high profile speakers will give a series of addresses and panel discussions about the identifying behaviors, lessons, and solutions relating to Inclusive Leadership In Practice.

Day Two will primarily focus on speaker sessions, interactive learning, and dialogue revolving around Fostering Inclusive Interpersonal and Team Dynamics, Building Inclusive Organizations and Societies, and the Next Steps on the Path to Inclusion. Guest lecturers and panelists include: Ed Schein, Professor Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management, The Organizational Culture and Leadership Institute, David Thomas, Professor at Harvard Business School, and Michael Benitez, Chief Diversity Officer and Dean of Diversity and Inclusion at University of Puget Sound, among many others. Collectively the speakers come from all professions — the public to private sector, from education to consulting. The full list of guest speakers and their bios can be found here.

In today’s world where discussions of diversity and inclusion have finally been brought to the forefront of news, our theme is more salient now than ever before. We look forward to having you attend and create a more inclusive world together.

 

Key Features of KDR 2017 Conference

·         Interactive Learning: Join Researchers, practitioners, faculty, students, and other stakeholders to explore cutting-edge theory, research, practice, and experience on the pivotal role of leadership in fostering inclusion in diverse organization and societies.

·         Inter-Disciplinary & Experiential Approaches to Inclusion

We will span across disciplinary boundaries and micro to macro perspectives with a conference format combining presentation, dialogue, and ample opportunities for engagement to co-create a multi-faceted understanding of leadership for inclusion.

·         Distinguished Speakers

Speakers include distinguished academics and practitioners in leadership, psychology, business & management, organizational behavior, civic engagement, and diversity and inclusion.

·         Research Publication

At the end of the conference, all the leadership researchers get together to write a book on the findings and developments made through the conference. 

By Linnea Uyeno ’20

Fundamental tenets of our democracy are currently under threat, according to Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer, Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse. She has worked in the White House as the Consultant to the Chief of Staff and served as Chief of Staff to the Governor of Ohio. Through her work in political offices, she was inspired to start AmericaSpeaks, so that ordinary people would have a voice and the tools and platform to help strengthen our democracy.

The decline of democracy did not just begin in the 2016 presidential election. In fact, the 2016 election was more of a symptom than a cause, according to Lukensmeyer. The political divide between Republicans and Democrats has been growing deeper for some time now.

“Throughout most of modern political history, if you took the 535 members of congress and looked at it as a bell curve there were places where some conservative democrats and liberal republicans overlapped. They were willing to compromise, and they shared some of the basic political philosophy. If you look at the bell curve, now, there is absolutely no overlap,” said Lukensmeyer.

So why have the seas parted and turned salty against one another? Well, Lukensmeyer points to the Supreme Court’s Decision in Citizens United as a root cause.

“In 1992, when George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton ran against each other the combination of their campaign contributions and in total spent 92 or 93 million dollars. When Mitt Romney and Barack Obama ran, the total amount spent on the 2012 presidential campaign was more than 7 billion dollars,” said Lukensmeyer. Essentially, the decision gave corporations the same campaign funding rights as an individual. It has changed the face of campaign funding.

Additionally, Lukensmeyer holds the media responsible for increasing the division. “The creation of information technology has undercut the business model of journalism,” said Lukensmeyer. The rise of the internet caused advertisers to shift their support out of print, and it reduced the amount of money spent on long form journalism. While it may have democratized information, it has led to everyone being a broadcaster.

“The internet’s structure does not put people that disagree with each other in dialogue in a meaningful way. The amount of negative content and responses on the internet has increased exponentially.”

Furthermore, it is easy to get stuck in a media silo and to just absorb political information that confirms your political views. People are becoming more polarized because they are absorbing content that only speaks to one political party. This problem is only exacerbated by social media sites like Facebook that have an algorithm for only showing you content that they know you will enjoy.

“You need to access news sources that don’t just affirm what you already believe,” said Lukensmeyer.

The increasing polarization of the media and congress has led to people being unable to have civil discussions.

“The divides have grown deeper. During and after this election we saw and are still seeing the demonization of Trump voters by Clinton voters and vice versa. We, the people, have got to take the step of learning to be in contact with people who think differently than we do, and learning to how to listen to understand rather that to convince,” said Lukensmeyer.

Why does this lack of communication pose a problem? It creates political gridlock. Furthermore, it destroys the deliberative nature of democracy. The process of civil deliberation creates a system of political accountability that is essential to democracy. If we aren’t talking to one another, a demagogue can divide, conquer, and rise to power.

“My concern for your generation… is that you have been under a explicitly anti-government narrative coming from mass media and politicians for your entire lives. Many of you start with an anti-government bias, and the positions you hold about it are not fact based. I am not sure if your generation carries enough perspective to protect fundamental institutions of our democracy,” said Lukensmeyer.

So what can you, as a college student, do? Well for starters, take pride in your citizenship, and do not take it for granted. Citizenship is not a right. It is a responsibility. In order to be a contributing citizen it is important to engage in civil discourse with people that you disagree with. In the liberal community of Claremont, this can be a difficult task. However, push yourself to challenge your beliefs by reading or listening to alternative perspectives with an open mind. Maybe even call a relative that you disagree with, and attempt to have a civil conversation. Lukensmeyer’s organization has an app that helps individuals do this.

Take your cellphone and text 898-00 and in message line type civility. You should do this activity with friends. The app will send back prompts for you and your friends to talk about, and it will guide you through a civil discussion. Then, once you have had this conversation with friends, you are encouraged to take that framework and step outside of your comfort zone by having a civil discussion with someone you fundamentally disagree with.

“Most of us have pretty strong reactions to people that have different viewpoints than our own. What most Americans don’t do is to take the time to reflect on what it is in me that makes me react so strongly.”

Find that thing that makes you itch for justice, and scratch it. For example, you might select rank-choice voting as a systemic change you believe in suggested Lukensmeyer.

“It’s great because it cuts the incentive to run negative ads against your opponent and can reduce polarization. Get a group of students together that are passionate about implementing rank choice voting in California. Take a petition to your state and members of the assembly and the senate, and the secretary of state,” said Lukensmeyer.

Some of the reforms our system needs seem so basic. The fact that they haven’t been accomplished makes it seem insurmountable.

“Different centers that hold power today aren’t going to give the power up until someone forces them to give the power up. The weight of historical institutional power is on the side of the system today, and it takes a huge push from money or citizen power, to break through the institutional power.”

“Is it idealistic to think that we could overcome the current political situation?” I asked Lukensmeyer.

“I would never say that. One of the great gifts to humanity is the idealism of each new generation. It is part of what keeps the world on a positive progression, as Martin Luther King said, ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice’. There may be in specific issue areas a lack of facts and support to help you act on your idealism in ways to produce meaningful social change, but your idealism is a great asset,” said Lukensmeyer.

By Sofia Trigo ’20

Deborah Meehan is the founder and executive director of the Leadership Learning Community where she works with a network of over 9,000 people who fund, run and study leadership development and share a commitment to improving leadership development programs both nationally and internationally. In her presentation at the Kravis Leadership Institute’s 25th Annual Kravis-de Roulet Conference, “What in our Current Approaches to Leadership Development Contributes to or Undermines Greater Social and Racial Equity?”, Ms. Meehan explored how individualism and concepts of meritocracy permeate the ways we think about leadership and inequality. She also examined the influence race and racial tensions can have on leadership and leadership development programs. After her discussion, I was able to sit down with Ms. Meehan and continue discussing leadership and its current relationship to individualism and race.

After wrapping our discussion, I was struck by just how complicated it is to re-think leadership and effectively change how companies and organizations conduct leadership development programs. Ms. Meehan’s point that leadership exists within a context is something I feel we often dismiss as we so quickly praise the ‘corporate heroic model’ or the individual leader. I began to wonder how much this societal emphasis on the individual leader has influenced students here at Claremont McKenna College conceptualize leadership among their peers. I began, too, to realize how important, yet, under acknowledged, team work and team building is to effective leadership. In both her presentation and interview, Ms. Meehan reminded me of the individual progress and societal growth re-thinking leadership can inspire and encourage. Below are excerpts from our discussion together.

Q: Could you talk a little more about what you mentioned in your talk regarding ‘rethinking leadership with a race conscious lens’?

Deborah Meehan (DM): By race conscious lens we mean once you’ve started to think about your leadership development programing there are so many ways that you will need to equip people and so many ways in which you’ll need to run your program if you want to contribute to greater social equity. It starts even with recruitment and all the barriers that exist in participation. How you think creatively about those barriers is critical. Whether you’re able to provide some kind of special equity fund for people who have children or transportation issues, or, whether you’re willing to, in the design of your program, to challenge philanthropy about who is getting money and why. Then, in the actual design of your program, what kind of curriculum exists? I had a poll that I didn’t use during my talk that discusses leadership development curriculum and what should be included. For example, do you have a curriculum that explains the racialization of opportunity structures in this country? Does it help individuals to understand this systemic problem and provide them with tools and an understanding of how best to disrupt it? Are you teaching people how to talk about race? Are you willing to be straight-on about white privilege? In the design of the program, are you privileging experts that are white and outside of the lived experience that is most rich when it comes to ‘change work’? How do you co-create programming with the participants to tap their expertise? In leadership development, a big question is: how can you create a learning community so that everybody can learn together from the actions they take and then how do you build sustainable networks from that.

Q: You also discussed how leadership is often thought of as super individualistic, particularly in America. How do you think we should go about changing this conception of leadership?

DM: Right, we like to call that individualism in leadership the “corporate heroic model.” Changing this requires a cultural shift. That’s why; we say making that one meta-shift right now would be huge for us in the future. We have to get people to start expanding what they understand leadership to be. In fact, I don’t agree with the paradigm ‘leadership and followership’ that was the theme last time I was here for a conference. I think it encourages people to abdicate leadership roles. Would you say that anybody who was on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement was a follower? My feeling is everyone participating was enacting leadership and Martin Luther King Jr. played an amazing role in terms of being a representative and the voice for many that were mobilized to lead. There were students, legal organizations, janitor’s unions, the southern Christian leadership conference – there was enormous collaboration and negotiation that was happening behind the scenes. Yet, because we are so attached to the individual and leadership, we fail to talk more broadly about the massive mobilization of leadership in the Civil Rights movement.

Q: Could you elaborate on how you see teamwork fitting in with our individual-framed concept of leadership?

DM: I mentioned in my talk the example of a woman who exceeded all goals set out for her by encouraging teamwork and working with a team, and yet, simply because she promoted the team rather than her own leadership, she was not acknowledged for her success and was told she wasn’t being ‘leader-like’. This is another example of that cultural shift we need to begin making. I even think that in companies, people are recognizing you need teams but we set up performance measures that undermine teams and teamwork. People do not get evaluated as a team, they get evaluated as individuals. This standard encourages a kind of competition where individuals aren’t driven towards teamwork but rather to outshine everybody else. There are so many current structures in place that are undermining re-thinking and enacting leadership as more inclusive and diverse process.

Q: What do you mean by leadership existing within a context?

DM: I can actually use an example from this KLI event! I was sitting yesterday with a woman in one of the small group conversations who is a student here. She was talking about how she got involved in this program that was looking to challenge the fact that arts on campus were so male identified. Then, in doing that work, women of color responded saying, yeah, but you know what, women of color are even less represented, and this communication and conversation grew from there. Well that’s her leadership and it’s happening in a specific context. It’s not as if she is going into a leadership program, getting skills and is now suddenly a leader. Leadership is about what we are moved by, who we can connect with, and how we can make it happen together. Leadership programs, however, aren’t structured to help individuals work more effectively with other people in the contexts in which they lead. We have to start re-structuring leadership programs to acknowledge context and to bring leadership supports to groups of people where they are already engaged in change work if we are to do a better job of supporting social and racial equity.

By Connor Bloom ’19

On Saturday, January 28th twenty Claremont McKenna students began their day early and headed over to the Kravis Center to catch a 7am bus to the Kravis Leadership Institute’s second Passion and Purpose Retreat co-led by Scott Sherman, Senior Director of Social Innovation and Co-Curricular Programming and Gemma Bulos, Director of Social Innovation and Impact along with Shreya Bhatnagar ’20, Sydney Baffour ’20, and CC Schwab ’19—three students trained as Social Innovation Consultants (SIC’s). After a relatively short bus ride up into the mountains around Big Bear, the students unloaded their bags in their cabins and went straight into workshops. The students spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning doing activities designed to help bring out their creativity, innovation, improvisation, and ultimately their passions.

The first activity that the students were tasked with by Scott was to find someone in the room that they didn’t know and ask one another a series of increasingly personal questions. In describing the activity Scott noted that it is incredibly important in today’s world to be able to relate to people, to get to know them, and to make them feel valued; it is through making these types of connections that you can accomplish change. While some activities such as this were more serious, others pushed students out of their comfort zones in completely different ways.

One series of activities saw students work on their improv skills in various situations, encouraging them to think on the spot, even make mistakes and then run with them! Students also got to hear both Scott and Gemma’s stories—the meandering paths that they took to being social entrepreneurs, the lesson being that life isn’t always a straight path to where you are going. After hearing their stories, students took a half hour alone to themselves to write out three completely different life paths that they could see for themselves if they had no constraints. When they came together to share, many students found that the activity gave them a renewed sense of purpose and hope, both in what they can accomplish in their lives, and in what others chose to do with theirs. A common theme in life trajectories seemed to be giving back to the world or a community in some way. Saturday ended with a campfire and a capella sing-alongs (not always on key). With the smell of campfire smoke in their sweaters, the students retired to their cabins for the night.

Sunday morning saw the SIC’s—Shreya, Sydney, and CC—leading the activities. After collectively coming up with what they perceived to be the nine biggest problems facing the world today, students worked to come up with solutions. They were encouraged to write solutions, no matter how crazy or infeasible, on sticky notes and post them up around the room. After the solution portion had finished, each student took one solution idea and devised a realistic game plan to implement it. These individual implementation plans were then shared with the rest of the group.

As the students hopped back on the bus to head back to campus, there was a general sense that they had really gotten something tangible from the two-day retreat. Although they may not know exactly what their purpose is as they returned to campus, they were definitely feeling more passionate about going out there and finding it. Ellen Broaddus ’20 summed up the retreat nicely saying, “I think in college we sometimes learn that every decision must further our professional ‘plan’, but this workshop showed me that there is value in mistakes and dead ends and that as long as you work towards finding your passion, you’ll end up where you need to be.”

The retreat would not have been possible without the behind-the-scenes logistical work of Tori Gaines, Leadership Programs Coordinator, KLI.

By Sofia Trigo ’20 

 Storytelling for Fun and Profit is a KLI hosted half-day event that encourages students to uncover the nature of effective communication. Students participated in actives that explored how best to tell a story, frame a narrative and interact with a potential interviewer or employer.

What constitutes a charismatic leader? How can individuals create meaningful, authentic, relationships with their peers? What is the foundation of an inclusive, accepting community? These are just some of the many thought-provoking questions posed at the KLI sponsored event, Storytelling for Fun and Profit.

Initially, the group circled up outdoors and worked through engaging activities to frame the day. Student facilitators, Sydney Baffour’20, Edgar Warnholtz ’19 and Sydney Joseph ’18 offered to share personal anecdotes on their individual growth as leaders and as individuals. Student facilitators discussed how to exude and extend openness, how to challenge oneself to appear as authentic and genuine, and how best to connect similarities and celebrate differences.

Next, participants were split into small groups of three-four, including a student facilitator. The groups worked to further connect students and encourage more personal sharing. Interactions between students had visibility shifted from tentative conversation to more genuine curiosity and communication. Laughter and smiles, too, were contagious throughout the numerous small group exercises.

Much focus was directed towards learning how to ‘frame’ individual narratives. Students were asked to pair up and share a story where they “made a significant mistake”, first as if they were engaging with a fellow peer, and next, as if they were speaking to a potential employer. Upon reflection, many realized that while the content of their story remained the same, they had adjusted their tone and phrasing to reflect the change in audience.

KLI Director of Social Innovation and Impact, Gemma Bulos, reiterated this point when she said, “In the second story, it was clear that an effort was made to work on framing the story differently. It is super important to learn how to leverage the significant aspects and developments in your life to reflect who you are talking to.”

Many participants were intrigued by the prospect of improving their communication skills. Some, were eager to explore the nature of interaction when job searching or interacting with a potential boss or employer.

“I sometimes feel like I’m bad at interviews” said Austin Huan ’19, “I think this experience will be really helpful for me.”

KLI student facilitator, Edgar Warnholz ’19 was drawn particularly to the program subject, “I think stories are a great way to connect with people because they go beyond the small talk that you can hear every day,” he said.

In fact, the program wasn’t exclusive to CMC students. Both CMC Korean language student Jamie Kang, and Spanish language resident and Lucia Lopez Otal participated in the program. They shared excitement over improving their English-speaking skills and learning how to more effectively communicate effectively with others.

Student facilitator Tony Sidhom ’17 discussed how to go about maintaining a connection between the “head and the heart”, while facilitator Jahnavi Kocha ’19  emphasized the importance an ensured confidential sharing environment has on producing an effective story-telling environment.

Perhaps the most impactful part of the day came after Sara Thompson, KLI Director of Leadership Programs, presented the distinction between ‘ego stories’ – those told for the sake of self-promotion – and ‘soul stories’ – those that reveal more genuine aspects of the individual.

“I don’t want to put a value judgment on ‘soul stories’ versus ‘ego stores’ because both are equally important” she clarified, “but, today, our goal is to focus on how best to go about telling effective ‘soul stories’. Soul stories require authentic interactions, sharing from a place of humility and even being a bit vulnerable.  Ultimately these stories connect people at a deeper level, build trust, and are the reasons people choose to be led by you.”

Students were then asked to come up with their own ‘soul story’ and work on further developing their respective ideas in small groups.

“Writing my own soul story challenged me to create a path to my experiences and what has gotten me to this point in my life thus far” said Student facilitator, Sydney Joseph ’18, “I think that the ability to tell stories about yourself is more important now than ever in an increasingly polarized society in which people are experiencing an echo chamber of opinions similar only to their own.”