Our Vision

Today starts the first day of the training of the trainers. We will meeting with 30 teachers from across the country to begin prepping them for the camp so that they will be able to teach it to the children next week. As we continue to pursue our mission and goals, we wanted to share with you our vision so that you can begin to understand the purpose of our program. We will also soon be posting our incredible pictures from our hike to Tiger's Nest yesterday.

Here is our vision:

At the Leadership Institute at Harvard College, we believe that all worthwhile education is powerful. Its impact must always start at the student, but must never end there. When placed in the right hands, its effects proceed to reverberate across the ­­­­­­­­intricate windings of society, picking up momentum along the way, and leaving individuals and communities forever altered.

Our Youth Lead the Change curriculum derives its value from this philosophy. We begin the program by guiding the students along a path of self-discovery and reflection in which they identify their interests, passions, strengths, and weaknesses. Then we cultivate an appreciation of service leadership so that students can comprehend that outstanding leaders are those who are devoted to compassionately satisfying the needs of others and addressing injustice.

Essentially, our goal is to inspire then empower. We help students to realize whom they want to serve and how they want to lead. We equip them with the skills and tools that they will need to navigate a complex society so that they can diagnose community needs and fulfill them. Then we help them to align their visions with those of different people to form a single driving mission. Students thus leave the program with the ability to both unite and work harmoniously with others, in the contexts of a team, a community, a nation, and a world.

As they find purpose in their communities and nurture their capacity to contribute to society by refining their leadership skills, students reach a new level of peace and happiness as their sense of self-worth soars to new heights. These students emerge from the program as confident leaders; this means that some of them will be at the forefront of movements within their communities and policy-making within the Kingdom of Bhutan. Formal service leadership training through Youth Lead the Change will leave students sincerely invested in the prosperity, wellbeing, and governance of Bhutanese citizens. Therefore, students will be devoted to achieving the four pillars of Gross National Happiness, and they will harness the lessons of our teachings for the development of their nation.