Welcome to my first blog – my 12-year old is very impressed! Those of you who are familiar with Brescia will know that leadership is at the very heart of our mission. That mission is made real through the work of Brescia’s Institute for Women in Leadership (iWIL) and I would like to share with you two exciting initiatives that demonstrate our commitment to providing opportunities for young women to choose leadership.
Take the Lead
Brescia’s second Take the Lead public speaking contest invites female students in Grades 11 and 12 to present a short speech on the broad topic of leadership and to compete with their peers for the top prize of free first-year tuition at Brescia. The buzz last year around this event led to a field of 26 participants. I was happy to not be included in the senior judges’ panel for the final round as they were tasked with the near impossible job of selecting a winner from among seven of the best speeches I have ever heard on this topic! There has been keen interest in this initiative and I’m pleased to say that Take the Lead returns to Brescia on Saturday, April 10, 2010. I am proud to be part of the team that has created something so inspirational for the young women that Brescia serves. We hear from our students that Brescia continues to cultivate and encourage their growth as leaders and that they leave us with a much clearer idea of how they intend to change the world around them.
GirlsLEAD
How do we nurture opportunities for leadership at Brescia? One of the best examples of our students choosing to lead is our GirlsLEAD Camp. In 2007, one of our new students, Kate Bryant, approached Brescia with the idea of creating a girls’ summer camp on Brescia’s campus that would support girls and young women in their healthy growth and development. And so GirlsLEAD was born! This camp has been developed and refined throughout its three summers of operation, but it remains true to its original vision. We have the pleasure of watching young girls thrive as they work with their peers and camp counselors to investigate and experiment with leadership in its many forms. They also have a lot of fun as is evidenced by the very high rate of returning campers each year! Brescia has decided to expand GirlsLEAD internationally this summer, offering the camp in Bridgetown, Barbados with the generous help of some local sponsors there. We are teaching, supporting, and nurturing leadership – one camper at a time. I look forward to sharing reports and photos of our GirlsLEAD International program!
I look forward, in the coming weeks, to continuing our leadership conversation, and to sharing with you the many ways in which Brescia focuses its work on choosing leadership in education. I hope to be able to inspire each of you to think about your own choices for leadership and to grapple with the many ways in which we can each make the world a better place. And, by all means, use this as an opportunity to share your ideas with me and with other readers.
Dr. Colleen Hanycz
Principal, Brescia University College