Welcome

About the program

Welcome women student leaders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan

Congratulations on being selected for the Study of the United States Institute (SUSI) on Women's Leadership sponsored by the Study of the U.S. Branch at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State.

We send you warm greetings from Washington State! We are busy making preparations for your arrival and look forward to meeting you in late June.

The five-week Leadership Institute hosted by Green River College is focused on achieving the key objectives of facilitating a deeper understanding of the United States, while enhancing your leadership skills.

This Institute is a wonderfully enriching experience. Our former SUSI participants found that this visit to the United States you are about to embark upon, has noticeably changed their lives in ways that enhance personal and career success. We have designed a program which focuses on Women's Leadership. We have drawn upon a wide variety of resources and expertise which will be delivered by our experienced team, and supported by community leaders and consultants.

You will gain new perspectives on contemporary America, as well as:

• How empowerment and gender issues have affected the progress of women around the world
• How such key issues impact your contribution to - and future role in - society
• How leadership is the art of making a difference in your own lives and those of others
• How role models of women's leadership can transform your vision of what is possible

We will look at Women's History and Gender Studies from a comparative perspective.

Together, we will discuss significant changes in women's lives of the past 50 years, in our country and yours. Are women's issues different from men's? If so, what are the differences? How does being male or female affect the way we think about poverty, violence, and the law, for example?

We will also discuss women's political leadership. Are there gendered leadership styles that are more or less effective? Gender refers to the array of socially constructed roles and relationships, personality traits, attitudes, behaviors, values, relative power and influence that society ascribes to the sexes on a differential basis. Gender is fluid, gender changes over time and place. We will reflect on gender identity as a personal project, but also as a framework of analysis in order to assess how women and men affect and are affected differently by policies or projects. A gender perspective will also help us think meaningfully about representations of women in popular culture.