New alumni scholarship available from Teach For America NC and the Aspen Institute

Teach For America North Carolina has a new scholarship for its alumni which will let them enroll in one of the Aspen Institute’s leadership development programs: the Aspen Executive Seminar on Leadership, Values, and the Good Society.

Alumni can apply starting this summer for the program and, if accepted, will get the full funding of $12,950 paid for by both organizations.

“As a TFA alumni leader working in the nonprofit education space I rarely get access to professional development and growth opportunities like the Aspen Institute,” Vichi Jagannathan (TFA ENC ’11), co-founder of Rural Opportunity Institute and an early recipient of a scholarship to attend the seminar, said in a press release. “The opportunity to build connections with and learn from senior leaders in different fields was invaluable for me and will be for other alumni. It is critical to have the exposure and learning from this type of experience as we continue to remain focused on contributing to education and equity in North Carolina.”

The press release describes the seminar, which has been around since 1951, as one that “brings together individuals to engage in dialogue and critical examination of their core values in order develop the practices and mindsets to be more effective values-based leaders.”

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are all previous attendees, according to the press release. It is held six times a year at the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Meadows Campus in Colorado.

The press release states that the ultimate plan is for those who have gone through the seminar to attend “annual convenings” in North Carolina featuring “Aspen Institute-designed programming to both foster deep bonds of community and prompt meaningful action.”

“This collaboration is a welcome and timely investment in education in and for a free and responsible democracy. Ideas have consequences, and we all benefit — especially those laboring in the vineyards of education — from an opportunity to test our ideas and their consequences in the company of those who may see the world differently,” said Todd Breyfogle, executive director of executive leadership seminars at Aspen Institute, in a press release. “I hope this collaboration will be the first of many such opportunities for leaders in education to expand their perspectives, refine their pedagogy, and help create the laboratories of ideas and dialogue that support a more thoughtful public.”