Leadership Champlain

Don’t miss an opportunity to learn more about community issues and how you can make an impact!  As a member of the Leadership Champlain Class, you will gain insight into our community’s issues in a unique way: through active learning, team-based learning, networking and exposure to community leaders.  The Leadership Champlain program incorporates all this into a two-day overnight retreat, eight, day-long seminars, and two team projects over the course of the September through June program year.

Each monthly session is held at a different location, chosen for its connection to the session’s topic.  You will debate the law with leaders in the Criminal Justice field and tour the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility with the Superintendent; you will learn about Government and Politics from legislators at the Vermont State House; you will see first-hand the human service needs in our community and how they’re being met; and you will discuss the critical issue of health care with our state’s leading providers.  This unique program will offer you a first-hand look inside some of the many institutions that make up your community.

In the fall you will work with a team of classmates, studying leadership theory and interviewing a prominent community leader about his or her leadership style.  Leaders interviewed by the past class include: Mehran Assadi, President & CEO of National Life of Vermont; Ernie Pomerleau, President of Pomerleau Real Estate; Jack Neuhauser, President of Saint Michael’s College; Jacob Bogre, Executive Director of the Association of African’s Living in Vermont; Kyle Dodson, Director of Community Service and Civic Engagement at Champlain College; Mary Alice McKenzie, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Vermont; and Deborah Lisi-Baker, Associate Director of the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion from the University of Vermont.

In the spring, you will engage in community leadership first-hand through a team project.  For this project, you will work with a different group of your classmates, first defining and choosing your project, then implementing it on behalf of a community non-profit organization.
Become a part of this unique and engaging program and build your network with other professionals who want to make a difference!