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For Students
The Bella Abzug Leadership Institute (BALI) mentors and trains young women
in high school and college to be proactive, principle-driven leaders of
tomorrow in fields that transform society and our political system for the
betterment of women. Using the dynamic political and strategic leadership
skills of the legendary lawyer, politician and activist Bella Abzug, BALI
helps young women build the confidence and techniques necessary to be
effective and visionary leaders in a wide variety of fields, and active
participants in civic, corporate, political and community life.
High School Program
Students in the BALI high school program participate in a two-week intensive
debate and leadership training program led by our training partner,
Impact Coalition, Inc.
(www.impactcoalition.org). Impact Coalition
is a not-for-profit organization that specializes in designing debate
training, mentoring and other educational training that expands
opportunities for urban public high school students. The leadership
and debate training is led by acclaimed faculty from New York City and
throughout the U.S. The trainers help students focus on identifying
specific challenges, overcoming fear of public speaking, researching
pertinent political and public policy issues and examining the roles they
will assume as they become community builders and the new leaders of today and tomorrow.
BALI’s extremely capable and talented high school students come from often
underserved public high schools throughout New York City. The students are
highly motivated to learn the skills being taught, and work hard and
creatively during the two week program, often developing strengths they
never knew they had.
To enhance our skills development training program, we also recruit
accomplished women leaders in the fields of law, business, politics,
government, the nonprofit sector and academia. These women share
stories of how they succeeded in their chosen occupations. BALI
trainees network with these accomplished women.
Since its inception, BALI has consistently received excellent ratings on
participant evaluation forms. Recent BALI high school trainees viewed the
training as critical to helping them understand how they can become leaders
both in general and in their own communities. In addition, 94% of our
trainees stated that their speaking abilities, listening skills, and
willingness to assume leadership roles were inspired and transformed
dramatically by the training.
Our high school training program is offered at no cost to all students who
are accepted.
Bella “Fellas” in Action
BALI trainees who graduate from the program are known as "Bella Fellas.”
When they complete the BALI training, Bella Fellas are encouraged to get
involved in specific projects to inspire social consciousness among their
classmates and friends in their own communities. We offer follow-up
program opportunities and internship placements for all interested Bella Fellas.
School-Based Young Women’s Campaign
One of BALI’s goals is to encourage trainees to take the lessons they
learned in the two-week intensive debate training program and in the
on-going mentoring by our trainers, back to their schools to design an issue
campaign that affects their own lives. We strongly encourage them to
actively demonstrate the leadership skills and techniques that they have
learned in our BALI program and to apply their passion, activism and
leadership in meaningful ways in their own communities.
College-Level Program
BALI President and Co-Founder Liz Abzug is an adjunct professor at Barnard
College/Columbia University and recently developed and taught a new case
studies course on women and leadership. That course will be offered again
this fall. The course involves case studies of prominent women leaders of
the 20th and 21st centuries in the fields of
politics, business, media, advocacy, the military and academia.
BALI is also working with leadership experts in academia as well as other
professions to develop a dynamic, innovative summer training program to
provide undergraduate college women with guidance on leadership styles and
internship connections — vital tools as they pursue their careers. We
are developing an extensive curriculum for this program and hope to launch
it in 2008.
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