Santa Clara University

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 23, 2010 —A Colombian activist seeks restitution for women displaced by internal war.  A former policewoman in Malawi expands the reach of her four care centers for children orphaned by AIDS. A Pakistani woman trains mountain residents to protect themselves against climate change.

These global entrepreneurs, and 18 others, are coming to Santa Clara University July 31 through August 7 to receive training and coaching as part of the University’s inaugural Global Leaders for Justice (GLJ) program. Their visit is part of a three –month effort to help experienced leaders creatively break through business barriers and expand their network of global peers. Most of the international leaders receive scholarships to attend the program.

The GLJ program seeks to build on the success of a related program that has taken place at SCU for the past five years: the Women Leaders for the World (WLW) training and coaching program, sponsored by the Global Women’s Leadership Network (GWLN).

Both GLJ and WLW focuses the participants on answering the question “Who are you as a leader?” as a way to spark innovation, foster global citizenship, and expand the capacity and network of women leaders. To date, WLW has trained 100 graduates in 29 different countries.  For example, one alumna, a former teen widow in Kenya, successfully expanded a project to shelter and educate women in her country escaping genital mutilation. The program helped her become a stronger advocate for the women and to locate supporters worldwide.

GLJ is a joint effort between Santa Clara University’s School of Law, the SCU Leavey School of Business, and the GWLN.  Santa Clara University houses the program, and GLJ leaders oversee a five-member coaching team that will spend three months after the program helping the participants enact their visions.

The inaugural 21 attendees at the program are from Armenia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ghana, India, Italy, Kenya, Malawi, Pakistan, Tanzania, and the United States. Their stories or biographies, as well as information about the program and faculty, are available at GWLN’s website.  

Public and Media Availability:

Most of the sessions and training at GLJ take place in private meetings. Two events will be open to the public and the press: A public dialogue focused on global innovation, and a graduation ceremony at which graduates will summarize their project visions.

The public event details follow:

Global Innovation Dialogue: The Power of Transformative Justice event, August 5, 5 to 7 p.m. at the Locatelli Student Activities Center, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, Calif. 95053.  Please pre-register online at www.scu.edu/business/GIDrsvp/

Graduation Celebration:  August 7, 5 to 7 p.m. at the Locatelli Center, Santa Clara University.

About Global Leaders for Justice
Sponsored by the Leavey School of Business and the School of Law at Santa Clara University, the Global Leaders for Justice Program invites proven leaders to receive an intensive residential week of education and three months of coaching to build leadership capacity for sustainable social change; to shape social systems to transform the world, and to become empowered to be advocates in policy and action.

About the Global Women’s Leadership Network
The Global Women’s Leadership Network (GWLN), sponsored by the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, is dedicated to developing the leadership capacity of women who dare to transform the future of their organizations, communities, and the world.  GWLN’s mission is to ignite a new future for humanity by galvanizing women leaders to bring us all to a world built upon a whole system of social justice and economic sustainability.  For more information, visit www.gwln.org.

About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its more than 8,600 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, theology, and engineering, plus masters and law degrees, and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. masters universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.
 

Media Contacts: 

Deborah Lohse
SCU Media Relations, Asst. Director
(408) 554-5121
dlohse@scu.edu

Linda Alepin
Founding Director, GWLN
(408) 551-1831
lalepin@scu.edu