NEW Leadership Illinois provides college students and recent graduates from across Illinois with the fundamentals of leadership.
NEW Leadership® Illinois provides college students and recent graduates from across Illinois with the fundamentals of leadership. Participants engage in an intensive week-long program geared to prepare them to enter the public service arena. NEW Leadership® provides training in leadership, professionalism and networking, political communication, and public policy. The program emphasizes experiential learning through direct interaction with political professionals and project-based activities. NEW Leadership® is a non-partisan program and women leaders from the state, including Illinois women legislators from both the Republican and Democrat parties, serve as mentors in the program. The Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) co-sponsors the program with the Conference of Women Legislators of the Illinois General Assembly (COWL).
NEW Leadership® Illinois is a non-partisan, week-long residential program for college students designed to increase women’s representation in all elements of public life, including elected office. The program challenges our brightest students to think critically and creatively about public policy and encourages them to make a commitment to public leadership early in their careers. The program is held annually. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2020 program to be canceled.
The Curriculum
Leadership Training
Participants will examine the fundamentals of leadership. They will discuss such questions as:
Different leadership styles will be examined, and participants will consider ways to cultivate their unique skills and personal attributes to become confident and competent leaders.
Professionalism and Networking
Students learn first-hand what it means to serve in public office and how to get there through networking, relationship-building, and professionalism. Women leaders, including current and former legislators, other elected and appointed officials, lobbyists, and political campaign staff, serve as mentors in the program, speaking in keynotes, panels, and roundtable discussions. Students also see policy in action by visiting government offices during the week.
Policy Analysis and Advocacy
Throughout the week, participants will work in small groups to develop a policy solution to a particular public problem. Policy problems will be assigned on the first day and will be chosen from contemporary local, state, or national-level issues. Participants are given materials that explain the policy and the political environment and have the opportunity to interact with policy experts from the University of Illinois-Springfield and policy practitioners from all levels of government. Students then present their solutions to their peers, as well as professional policymakers, on the final day of the program.
Political Communication
Students will learn how to communicate effectively, work in diverse environments, and handle ethical dilemmas that arise in the course of campaigning for public office and serving in government. Participants will explore how technology and social media are used in campaigns and elections, and also how elected officials use social media to communicate with their constituents. Emerging technologies and privacy issues will be discussed.
Active Learning
The program is structured for active learning. Activities throughout the sessions allow students to engage with the material and with the faculty and speakers in a fun and collegial atmosphere. This culminates in a group policy analysis project, in which students demonstrate their new skills by presenting a policy proposal that they develop throughout the week in response to a local, state, or national policy problem.
For more information, contact the NEW Leadership® Illinois program at igpa-newl@uillinois.edu or (217) 265-7144.
Alumni report that participating in NEW Leadership® encouraged them to become more involved in politics, educated them about the political process and increased their overall self-confidence and leadership skills.
