Themes & Goals

Themes & Goals of Green River’s SUSI on Women’s Leadership Institute

The SUSI on Women’s Leadership at Green River College (GRC) presupposes familiarity with critical issues affecting the progress of women from both a U.S. and a global perspective: namely, Empowerment, Diversity, and Gender Studies.

Participants will study the changing role and status of women in society, especially over the past forty years. The strategic plans and priorities of organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and various Women’s Leadership Forums will form the basis of presentations, discussions and debates; and for participants to form realistic action plans to conduct after the SUSI. The SUSI themes will be:

• Leadership for Social Change: this will emphasize individual, group, and community contexts, to prepare participants for opportunities to become change agents after they return home.
• Women’s Empowerment: this will focus on gender and women’s issues, and women's economic empowerment, and will underpin participants’ effectiveness in bringing about change in their current and future environments.
• U.S. Society and Culture: this will review lessons from U.S. social and cultural revolutions which advanced women’s rights, using them as examples of how to continue the momentum of recent reforms in other parts of the world, for the benefit of women in participants’ home countries.

Green River’s institute will balance learning concepts and applying them; and motivating participants through experiential learning, role-modeling, and sharing narratives of successful and not-so-successful sociopolitical movements. The goals of Green River’s SUSI on Women’s Leadership Institute will be to provide:

• Instructional and experiential activities, including excursions and study tours focused on the themes of leadership, empowerment, and social change;
• A better understanding of American history, politics, society, economics, and culture by examining America’s foundational principles, underlying values, and supporting institutions;
• Models of successful female leadership and the means to sustain this level of achievement, as well as how to mobilize the support of other women and men of like mind;
• An understanding of how to be an agent of change and its importance;
• Opportunities to develop skills which will be transferable to participants’ home countries, and will enhance their future careers as leaders in organizations and communities; and,
• An opportunity to initiate follow-on projects in their home countries to demonstrate what they have learned, especially on the subject of leadership for social change.