by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
Many people don’t know nonprofit organization Leadership Jacksonville has added college students to its broadening list of community trustees, and even fewer are aware of the new program’s quickly approaching nomination deadline.
Collegiate Leadership Experience’s program director, Meg Folds, said Leadership Jacksonville alumni need to nominate participants for the college program by January 1 so applications can be mailed before February. The program is still relatively young and unknown, Folds added: It started in 2005, whereas the main LJ program began in 1976 with the goal of broadening the community’s leadership base.
Each year, LJ brings together adults who have demonstrated leadership in a variety of venues throughout the community, according to executive director Isabelle Spence. Program participants, which have ranged from Mayor John Peyton to Clara White Mission President/CEO Ju’Coby Pittman-Peele, get to learn about various conditions and challenges in the community during monthly, day-long classes organized by alumni.
The collegiate program holds similar classes of about 40 students during the summer, according to Folds.
“We felt like it was a target audience that wasn’t being tapped,” she said. “We wanted to show them [college students] that Jacksonville is a great place to live and work.”
Spence said the aim of the program is to keep or lure back young talent to the area. Participants must be rising sophomores, juniors or seniors between 18 and 23 years old attending college in Northeast Florida or with a permanent address in the region. Folds said many students come back home for the summer, attend the leadership classes and start planning to return to the area after graduation.
Take Shauna Canty, for example.The University of Florida journalism major graduated from the first Collegiate Leadership Experience in 2005, and the classes changed her perspective on Jacksonville.
“I definitely want to come back [after graduation], which surprised me and my family,” she said. “Before, I was convinced that I was never going to come back to Jacksonville for a job. “What I learned is how closeknit the community actually is, even though it seems so big.
I found out what it takes to run it and how ... I really want to be a part of the growing that Jacksonville is doing right now.”
The class activities range from police car ride-alongs to meetings with the St. Johns Riverkeeper.
“It [the experience] is not something you could get by reading it or seeing it on TV,” said Folds. “We don’t just talk about the jail, we take them to the jail.”
Spence said each class – both regular and collegiate – gets exposed to a variety of perspectives on issues like poverty, politics and cultural awareness. The programs also provide networking and resume-building opportunities for students.
“The people you meet make up the entire thing. I met people I never would’ve met in my entire life,” said Canty. “I think I’ll see these people in the paper [one day] and they’re going to make a difference somewhere in the world.”
The cost for the program is about $100 and some scholarships are available, said Folds. See leadershipjax.org for more information.