2013 PILOT PROGRAM
The Andi Leadership Institute for Young Women brought together eight young women for an intensive three-week seminar this past August. During this time, the women worked on a number of projects and participated in workshops about leadership, peacebuilding, and bridging cultural divides.
By the end of the seminar, each woman had spent considerable time working on her Capstone Project, the ambitious and large-scale projects that they intend to continue working toward post-seminar.
Of the eight Capstone Projects to come out of the ALI Pilot Program, four of them deal directly with education. Of those four, two of them seek to correct the misperceptions amongst groups that suffer due to the continued existence of those misperceptions. There are already those seeking to reconcile the perceived differences between adult Israelis and Palestinians and between adult Afghani men and women. But instead of working to eradicate the sense of the ‘other’ once it’s been ingrained, these two projects seek to prevent them from ever forming, changing the way members of a generation perceives itself and those around them.
The other two education-based projects will serve groups that are currently being left out of the education process. Refugees, displaced from their homes and without a school or system, are in increasing danger of growing up uneducated and without the means to improve their lives. Other children, while not refugees, are growing up with an infrastructure that is crumbling around them and not addressing their educational needs. These two education-based programs will seek to address these issues and instead of having a generation of children grow up uneducated and subject to the winds of politics and culture around them, they will instead have the knowledge to effect change.
Two of the Capstone Projects deal specifically in self-expression, through arts and exercise. These projects differ in the ways that they approach inspiring the next generation and that is one of the best parts of having a diverse group of young women leaders coming together. A healthy body is a healthy mind, one of the ALI pilot program participants will be working to teach inner-city children to swim. In turn, they will learn about themselves, become physically stronger, healthier, and inspired to take on new challenges and dispel self-limiting beliefs.
Positive self-image leads to greater success and healthier relationships. One ALI fellow will implement a dance program to help teach girls how to express their emotions and experiences. By unlocking these abilities, this program will help teach young women the ways in which they can freely express themselves, a necessary skill in becoming the next generation of leaders.
The final two Capstone Projects deal specifically with war and peace: one with those serving in combat and the other with those left in the dark about missing or fallen loved ones. The first project takes as a focal point the issue of child soldiers returning from combat. Transplanted from normalcy into war, and then returned to peaceful civilization, many of these child soldiers do not know how to reintegrate into society. They know neither the roles they can play nor how to even fulfill those roles. Without guidance, they are prone to becoming the seeds of a lost generation that only finds resolution through conflict.
The other project seeks to create a network to help people identity loved ones that have gone missing or been lost within conflict zones. At its core, this project is about closure, both mental and emotional. It is about addressing unanswered questions so that people are able to move forward with their lives and not be constrained in an indefinite state. At the same time, it builds a network of people becoming deeply conversant in the terrible effects of war on individuals, families, communities, and society.
As the Pilot Program came to a close, each of these young women was connected with an organization that would host her as an intern for the next three months. In these new roles, they are utilizing the skills learned during the seminar, interacting with others working in similar fields, and continuing their growth as leaders.
By the end of the seminar, each woman had spent considerable time working on her Capstone Project, the ambitious and large-scale projects that they intend to continue working toward post-seminar.
Of the eight Capstone Projects to come out of the ALI Pilot Program, four of them deal directly with education. Of those four, two of them seek to correct the misperceptions amongst groups that suffer due to the continued existence of those misperceptions. There are already those seeking to reconcile the perceived differences between adult Israelis and Palestinians and between adult Afghani men and women. But instead of working to eradicate the sense of the ‘other’ once it’s been ingrained, these two projects seek to prevent them from ever forming, changing the way members of a generation perceives itself and those around them.
The other two education-based projects will serve groups that are currently being left out of the education process. Refugees, displaced from their homes and without a school or system, are in increasing danger of growing up uneducated and without the means to improve their lives. Other children, while not refugees, are growing up with an infrastructure that is crumbling around them and not addressing their educational needs. These two education-based programs will seek to address these issues and instead of having a generation of children grow up uneducated and subject to the winds of politics and culture around them, they will instead have the knowledge to effect change.
Two of the Capstone Projects deal specifically in self-expression, through arts and exercise. These projects differ in the ways that they approach inspiring the next generation and that is one of the best parts of having a diverse group of young women leaders coming together. A healthy body is a healthy mind, one of the ALI pilot program participants will be working to teach inner-city children to swim. In turn, they will learn about themselves, become physically stronger, healthier, and inspired to take on new challenges and dispel self-limiting beliefs.
Positive self-image leads to greater success and healthier relationships. One ALI fellow will implement a dance program to help teach girls how to express their emotions and experiences. By unlocking these abilities, this program will help teach young women the ways in which they can freely express themselves, a necessary skill in becoming the next generation of leaders.
The final two Capstone Projects deal specifically with war and peace: one with those serving in combat and the other with those left in the dark about missing or fallen loved ones. The first project takes as a focal point the issue of child soldiers returning from combat. Transplanted from normalcy into war, and then returned to peaceful civilization, many of these child soldiers do not know how to reintegrate into society. They know neither the roles they can play nor how to even fulfill those roles. Without guidance, they are prone to becoming the seeds of a lost generation that only finds resolution through conflict.
The other project seeks to create a network to help people identity loved ones that have gone missing or been lost within conflict zones. At its core, this project is about closure, both mental and emotional. It is about addressing unanswered questions so that people are able to move forward with their lives and not be constrained in an indefinite state. At the same time, it builds a network of people becoming deeply conversant in the terrible effects of war on individuals, families, communities, and society.
As the Pilot Program came to a close, each of these young women was connected with an organization that would host her as an intern for the next three months. In these new roles, they are utilizing the skills learned during the seminar, interacting with others working in similar fields, and continuing their growth as leaders.