Enabling Black youth an opportunity to optimize their talents; Lifelong Leadership Institute launches program

BY PAUL JUNOR

Lifelong Leadership Institute (LLI) has been running the Leadership by Design program as an intervention intended to offset historical disadvantage and enhance the: personal, social, academic and career success of Black youth.

There are unique features of the LBD program that offer leadership skills, and a platform of encouragement-all given to enabling Black youth to optimize their talents, fulfill their highest ambitions and become outstanding citizens. It is open to Black or Black African Canadian students who live in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

In many ways, it is a community of students, parents, educators, industry professionals, and volunteers that are driven by the vision committed to the success of our students…your child. They only ask that students commit to learning and to seizing the opportunities they provide.

In order to be eligible students must fulfill the following criteria:

• Voluntarily self-identify as Black or Black African Canadian.
• Enrolled in Grade 10 during the academic year 2022-2023 (begins in September 2023.
• Academically promising and willing to pursue the opportunities LBD provides.
• Willing and able to attend Toronto-based in-person sessions on selected Saturdays.
• A Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.

Students who completed Grade 9 must be:

• Motivated to achieve personal, social, academic and career success.
• Open to learning new things.
• Interested in exploring new environments and collaborating with other students,
• Committed to attending scheduled in-person and virtual events.
• Be willing to be held to a high standard.
• Be aware of the challenges, difficulties, possibilities and benefits of this empowering and enriching program.

There are multiple benefits that these Grade 10 students will acquire such as:

• Leadership skills
• Mentoring
• Skill-building workshops
• Career exploration
• STEM program-U of T
• Coding and Robotics courses
• Telescopes and Astronomy
• Goal Setting
• Business and Entrepreneurship
• Summer Enrichment locations
• Scholarships

The following are the three steps involved in the application process:

Step 1: Before applying, carefully read the program information (see website) and the application guide.

Step 2: Discuss with your parents or legal guardians your intention to apply for the Leadership by Design (LBD) program. They must be fully aware and supportive of your application.

Step 3: Complete and submit (online) your LBD Application. Ensure the data you provide is accurate and complete. Incomplete application will not be considered.

The following are four steps in the LBD admissions-decision process:

Step 1: They evaluate each applicant’s data. They place significance on the numeric grades you achieved for four Grade 9 courses (English, Mathematics. Science and Geography).

Step 2: If considered eligible for admission in Step 1 (you accompanied by a parent or legal guardian) will be invited to a mandatory in-person admissions orientation session.

Step 3: Following the orientation session, applications deemed admissible will be advised via email. Both the applicant and parent(s) will be notified.

Step 4: The parent, or legal guardian of a student offered admission must complete a parental consent form by a given deadline.

The LBD program has added Guest Students Status for the following reasons:

• The student is in Grade 10 but is not offered admission into LBD.
• The student is in Grade 9 in fall 2023 and would like to experience some LBD programming in preparation for an application in fall 2024, or
• The student is in Grade 11 or 12, has missed the admission window for the LBD program, but would like to benefit from some LBD programming and services.

The application deadline is Friday, September 15^th, 2023. It is recommended that applications be submitted as soon as possible as applications will be accepted on a rolling basis: The application can be obtained from: https://llileaders.com/lbd