The Elon Center for Leadership, in cooperation with the Elon Center for Public Affairs, has concluded its first series of summer workshops and training events at the ISM University of Management and Economics in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The programming, developed and directed by Associate Dean Rex Waters, director of the Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows program, was conducted in partnership with the Lithuanian Youth Leadership Program. Waters, along with Elon students Melanie Woodward and Chris Champney, worked with about 100 Lithuanian high school students in a series of events focused on the challenges of leadership.
Waters said the opportunity to make Elon’s leadership program visible in an international context was an important step forward in the development of the program and represents potential opportunities for Elon’s Leadership students in the future.
“The Lithuanian students, are bright, motivated, energetic and really hungry for the leadership ideas we shared with them,” Waters said. “It was exciting for us to have a chance to work with them. We look forward to developing more opportunities of this type that will allow our Leadership students to utilize the skills they’ve acquired by deploying them in international contexts where the need for leadership development is so obvious.”
Betty Morgan, director of the Center for Public Affairs, coordinated the programming in Lithuania. She said that Leadership Development and Training in the region is critical to the long-term stability of the political system, the economy and society.
“The reactions of the Lithuanian students to our programming has been overwhelming,” Morgan said. “They describe it as inspiring, transformative and life changing. They let us know in very clear terms how important it is to them that we are here and willing to offer them opportunities to work with us.”
– Article submitted by associate professor Betty Morgan
