Cultivating Globally-Minded Young Leaders

PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh is hosting 50 student leaders from across the globe this weekend for the Fifth Annual Hesselbein Global Academy for Student Leadership and Civic Engagement Summit. Countries represented by the Hesselbein delegates include Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe.

The annual by-invitation gathering aims to nurture tomorrow’s global leaders through a series of interactive workshops, the utilization of government and business leaders as mentors, and hands-on problem-solving sessions at local community agencies. The students and their mentors work together to develop personalized “Leadership Action Plans,” and also attend “Dinner Dialogs” in the homes of civic and community leaders in Pittsburgh. Ten distinguished professionals from across the country will serve as mentors.

The summit will open at 3:30 p.m. July 20 in the Lower Lounge of the William Pitt Union, 3959 Fifth Ave., Oakland.

A highlight of the summit will be the annual Hesselbein Lecture at 5 p.m. July 22 in the second-floor ballroom of the O’Hara Student Center, 4024 O’Hara Street, Oakland. The speaker will be Regina Herzlinger, who is the Nancy R. McPherson Business Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Herzlinger was the first woman to be tenured and chaired at the Harvard Business School, and she is widely known for her innovative research in health care. Her talk is free and open to the public.

The cultural diversity of the Hesselbein scholars and mentors affords even domestic students the chance to enjoy an international experience without leaving the country.

“I truly feel that my soul and spirit were ignited and re-energized by attending Hesselbein,” said Caesar Hernandez, a 2011 Hesselbein alum who graduated from the University of South Florida. “I was able to interact with students from Africa, Kazakhstan, Europe, and South America. My peers and our mentors were able to create an incubator where we could discuss all of our ideas, struggles, ambitions, and dreams, and I found that I was not only challenged, but inspired.”

“The summit enables us as a University to advance our mission of cultivating conscientious and globally-minded young leaders who will be more than capable of solving the problems of tomorrow,” added Pitt Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey.

Five Pitt students—three from the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, one from the College of Business Administration, and one from the Swanson School of Engineering—were chosen to participate in the summit: Mimi Frisch, a senior urban studies major; John Cordier, a senior biology and sociology major; Zachary Patton, a senior philosophy and communication major; Cathleen Bonge, a junior business major; and Joseph Andros, a senior engineering major.

Established in 2009, the Hesselbein Global Academy is named in honor of Pitt alumnus Frances Hesselbein, recipient of the 1998 Presidential Medal of Freedom and chair of the board of governors of the Leader to Leader Institute. Hesselbein is currently the president and CEO of The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute (formally The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management). 

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7/18/13/mab/cjhm