What is the National Leadership Symposium (NLS)?
NLS is an annual retreat-style program that takes a deep dive into a timely leadership education topic. NLS participants engage alongside renowned scholars and approximately 40 other leadership educators. Program curriculum is cohort-based and highly experiential, centering dialogue principles and critical perspectives of leadership theory and practice through topical lectures, workshops, and collaborative projects. Questions? Contact Member Relations.
Why NLS?
If you are looking for an opportunity to engage in critical reflective practice to enact change in your role as a leadership educator, we encourage you to join us. Prior to registering, please consider that if you are looking for a check list or specific how-to activities, this experience may not be a right fit. By participating, our hope is the symposium learning experience will influence your leadership programs and pedagogies. This will require a level of personal work including engaging in considerations of internalized dominance and internalized oppression related to institutional life in leadership and higher education more broadly. To assist you in deciding to join the symposium, consider your level of commitment to the following:
Understanding power and privilege dynamics; and how those work in tandem to uphold the status quo
Increasing self-awareness of your own social location as a leadership educator
Considering how my race/gender/class might make it difficult for me to see or validate liberation as a goal
Applying liberatory frameworks to expand your understanding of leadership broadly
NLS is a partnership between the National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs (NCLP) and the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA).
