Application InformationExploring Leadership

"Exploring Leadership was so much more than I ever expected. It equips teenagers – who usually think they don't have a say or a voice – with the skills and tools to get their ideas heard and contribute to making positive changes in their communities. Teenagers often have the best ideas about what needs to change and how to change it, they just usually aren't heard."

Kezia Roberts, EL '10
High School for Public Service

Support

The Exploring Leadership program is generously supported by The Pinkerton Foundation, The W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation, Bulova Stetson Fund, New York Life Foundation, The National Grid Foundation, The Sy Syms Foundation, Hearst Foundations, TD Bank, The American Eagle Foundation, and other contributors.

Exploring Leadership is Coro's 9-month leadership program for New York City public high-school students from the Wingate Educational Campus in Brooklyn. It assists young people in developing their leadership and provides them with the knowledge and skills needed to exercise leadership and affect change in their schools and on their campus, through youth-adult partnerships with their Principals and teachers.

Over the course of the program, students use the lens of education policy to learn how New York City addresses education reform issues, how these issues impact school culture, and how they, as young people, can take action to address these issues in their schools. During the summer, Youth Ambassadors participate in a full-time program that introduces them to the world of education policy and immerses them in leadership development. Throughout the school year, they apply their learning to take action on educational issues that affect their schools.

Learn More Program Structure

Exploring Leadership has two main components:

Summer Intensive: Youth Ambassadors spend six weeks receiving intensive leadership and personal development training while developing an understanding of the public education system through experiential workshops. They gain an awareness of multiple stakeholder perspectives while developing the knowledge and skills to take an informed position on key education issues.
School Year: Youth Ambassadors return to their school communities and use their training to identify the issues that most impact their school community. They design and implement school-based Community Change Projects, in partnership with the adult leaders in their schools, to educate their peers on the issue and inspire them to take action to address it.

Learn More Who Participates

Exploring Leadership selects a total of 24 students (6 students per school) to participate in a 9-month training as "Youth Ambassadors." Students are sophomores, juniors, and seniors from four New York City public high schools located at the Wingate Educational Complex: 1) Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts; 2) School for Democracy and Leadership; 3) High School for Public Service; and 4) School for Human Rights.

Learn More Community Change Projects

The Community Change Project is the culminating experience of the program, as the process requires participants to draw together all the skills, training, and resources they have developed individually and as a cohort group, and commit themselves to purposeful action. Participants develop and implement their Community Change Projects in their school teams and in partnership with their principals and teachers.