Society's Leadership Development Program Goes Global
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - Phi Theta Kappa's Leadership Development Program
has been taken overseas to Asia - the first time for the Society to conduct
Leadership Development Program Certification Seminars abroad. Leadership
Development Program facilitators Dr. Jo Marshall, President of Somerset
Community College in Kentucky and Dr. Lillie McCain, a faculty member at
Mott Community College in Michigan, traveled to Singapore to conduct a
Leadership Certification Seminar for administrators and faculty at a
local college.
"The experience of bringing Phi Theta Kappa's
Leadership Development Studies to Singapore was an important global test
in which our facilitators and the curriculum were immersed in another culture,"
said Director of Leadership Development Programs Monika Byrd.
The
facilitators were invited by college administrators from the Institute
for Technological Education to travel to Singapore to conduct a Phi Theta
Kappa Leadership Development Certification Seminar. Administrators
from the college became interested in the Leadership program after attending
a seminar the previous year.
During their week-long stay, the
facilitators met with 50 college administrators and faculty members to
conduct a series of Leadership Development sessions.
Dr. Marshall
says the participants also accomplished and thoroughly enjoyed Leadership
exercises such as "The Toxic Waste Dump" and "The Hollow Square" - activities
also conducted at seminars held in the United States.
Byrd feels
having the program in Singapore has proven to be successful - not only for
the participants but for the future of the program.
"We often
hear suggestions for new humanities sources for our unique approach to
leadership development, and the Certification Seminar in Singapore was
an extraordinary opportunity to expand our thinking regarding sources
to develop curriculum for existing and emerging leaders," said Byrd.
In
1992 Phi Theta Kappa launched the Leadership Development Studies with
the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Faculty members become certified
to teach a Leadership Development Studies course after attending a certification
seminar where national facilitators present course materials demonstrating
leadership and skill-building tools.
Phi Theta Kappa International
Honor Society, headquartered in Jackson, is the largest honor society
in American higher education with 1,200 chapters on two-year and community
college campuses in all 50 of the United States, Canada, Germany, the Republic
of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of
Micronesia, the British Virgin Islands, the United Arab Emirates and U.S.
territorial possessions. More than two million students have been inducted
since its founding in 1918, with approximately 100,000 students inducted
annually.
