The Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows Class of 2012 visited sites in North Carolina, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., in January to learn about social change at the grass roots, state and national levels a part of the Winter Term course History of Social Change.
The fellows began their class by reading Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald A. Heifetz, Ethics for the New Millenium by the Dalai Lama, An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore and Why Women Should Rule the World by Dee Dee Myers. Class visitors included Ambassador Jim Josephs, who served in South Africa and was the only U.S. Ambassador to present his credentials to President Nelson Mandela.
Myers, first female White House press secretary, also visited and held a question-and-answer session with the fellows.
On January 11, a week-long trip began under the direction of history professor Rodney Clare and Mallory Anderson, director of the Center for Leadership. The first site visit was to Stone Circles, a spiritual retreat center in Mebane, N.C., which allows nonprofit groups to use the space for strategic planning and spiritual renewal.
On Tuesday, the group toured the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., and traveled to Newark, N.J., to visit the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. The state is one the leaders in national alternative energy initiatives with its Clean Energy Program that promotes the use of solar, renewable and biomass energies. Continuing in New Jersey, fellows visited Rutgers University, which boasts one of the nation’s largest solar energy farms.
The fellows spoke with university leaders about the sustainable initiatives Rutgers practices.
The final two days of the trip were spent back in Washington, D.C., where the group visited the offices of North Carolina legislators Sen. Richard Burr and Rep. Howard Coble of the 6th district, in which Elon is located. The fellows talked to staff members about the legislator’s views of social activism and how they view it at the state and national levels.
They also visited the Institute of International Education, which supports the Fulbright program and promotes the importance of international education. While in D.C. students had dinner with Fellows Alumni, Brett Cooper ’05, Mark Gustafson ’04, Lindsey Goodman Baker ’04, Dan Hanson ’05, Mike Kelly ’08 and Lindsay Boroush ’09.
The objective of the course was to introduce the fellows to social activism and to provide an opportunity to connect leadership with social change.
– Information submitted by Elise Delmerico ’12