The LEAP Effect
It’s Time to Burst the Bubble…
LEAP4change coaches students to be accountable leaders, to experience the power of collaborating with diverse neighboring communities, to know themselves and others as agents for local and global change, and to create their own personal marketing and branding portfolio to access higher education and professional opportunities.
LEAP4change is 4 Educational Experiences
1) Train to Lead
Effective leadership starts with emotional intelligence
Under the guidance of trained coaches, participants build emotional intelligence and learn leadership skills through a series of 12 experiential learning workshops. They explore their individual vision for addressing specific issues that affect their community and society at large. Students create and follow weekly action plans, practice collaborative problem solving skills, improve public speaking, and test their newly learned leadership skills.
EI + IQ + diversity + empowerment = Potent leadership
2) Build a Team
Team building requires diverse, global collaboration and communication
While the training strengthens your emotional intelligence, building your LEAP team (both locally and globally) breaks down barriers of difference and encourages assessment of chronic issues that weaken communities. Students engage in diverse, student-led discussion groups to uncover personal and societal issues that impact individuals in affluent and non-affluent communities. This workshop helps participants develop self-awareness, empathy, a voice and a clear understanding of barriers to success. The process builds confidence, teamwork, and advocacy skills that translate directly to success in and out of the classroom, home, and workplace.
Coach + 2 diverse local communities + global community = LEAP team
3) Become an Entrepreneur
World progress needs entrepreneurs
Who knows more about the problems in a community than the people who live in it? LEAP in Action empowers students to become entrepreneurs working in diverse partnerships to design and implement their own program of impact. Regular meetings inspire partners to create a deep cross-cultural understanding through which they can assess, identify and research a chronic issue they want to address. LEAP young visionaries promote individual vision and voice, instill integrity, accountability and responsibility, and leadership tools needed for success. LEAP coaches students to focus on empowerment and sustainability, and remain accountable to plan, budget, secure financing, market, travel, and measure their impact. Each leader is then expected to complete a portfolio to document the experience and the impact of their work.
LEAP Team + training + mission of impact + sponsor = LEAP in Action
4) Market and Brand Your LEAP
Personal marketing is imperative to compete in today’s dynamic environment
MY LEAP STORY, the capstone of the LEAP4change program, ensures that participants have successfully built their own LEAP portfolio on a wordpress website with a narrative that markets their acquired skills, experiences and accomplishments. Their personal portfolio is then leveraged as a resume to ensure visibility and scalability of their vision, and gain access to higher education, internships, and job opportunities. Additional workshops and tutorials will create links between the LEAP experience and the pre-professional skills needed for students to develop a personal marketing plan that includes: a resume, contact list, social media strategy, portfolio, videos, letter writing, public speaking, interview skills and more. MY LEAP STORY ensures that every LEAP participant, regardless of circumstance, has access to the personal branding and marketing skills needed to support his/ her personal potential.
LEAP in Action + LEAP Portfolio = Access to jobs and higher education