SUMAS, Wash.The CCCU Womens Leadership Development Institute (WLDI) gathered 26 women from 22 campuses June 21-25, 2010, at the Cedar Springs Christian Retreat Center in Sumas, Wash. The Institute, built this year on the theme, "Some Leaders Are Born Women," launches a year-long leadership development program for each "fellow" which includes an individually-tailored "shadowing" experience with a mentor on another CCCU campus.
"I have never in my life felt such an amazing weaving together of my faith, my profession, and my sense of Gods calling to me as a woman with unique gifts that can further Gods work in this world," says Beth Martin Birky, Goshen College (IN). "This hasnt just been a good week, a week of learning. This week has changed my life."
Sessions included:
- Changing the Face of Leadership in Christian Higher Education: What We Should Know and Why This Is Important
- Valuing Self & Others Through Strengths: Implications for Your Leadership
- Making Tough Calls: The Role of Judgment and Decision-Making in Cabinet-Level Leadership
- Trust: Gaining It, Keeping It, Using It Wisely
- Power in Presence: Reflections on Space and Influence
- The "It" Factor in Leadership: Whose Voice Gets Heard?
- The Ability to Cast Vision: Critical to Effective Leadership?
- The Complexities of Higher Education Leadership & Lessons from Exemplars
- Trends in Womens Studies: What Christian Higher Education Could Learn
- Courage and Calling: The Role of Strengths in Discerning and Following Gods Design for Your Future
Fireside chats on the theme "Life Lessons from One Womans Leadership Journey" concluded each day.
"Coming to the June 2010 WLDI for me was a dream come true," says Martha Baananuka, Uganda Christian University. "It has been so life-changing, not only professionally but spiritually. I have met friends and have learnt a lot. Most of all, I am going to live with intentionality and I am going to start a Leaders Are Readers group."
The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 184 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. There are now 109 member campuses in North America and all are fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 75 affiliate campuses from 24 countries are part of the CCCU. The Councils mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth.