Sunday, July 18 - Friday, Aug 6, 2021

Young Women's Leadership Institute Online

The Program and Structure

The Young Women's Leadership Institute embraces the complex relationship between gender and leadership as its focus. As an YWLI participant you should be curious, passionate, and ready to develop your skills as a leader. The Institute will allow you to develop trailblazing qualities and push you in new directions as you explore leadership through a feminist lens. Students are given the opportunity to tackle a problem in the world and work in small groups to design and execute a solution using the skills they’ve gained in courses and workshops. You will also have the opportunity to meet with women in workplaces throughout the city to learn about the skills and tenacity needed to stand out in today’s workforce.

Program Dates: Sunday, July 18 - Friday, Aug 6, 2021

Virtual Orientation: Sunday, July 18, 2021
First Day of Classes- Monday, July, 19, 2021

Tuition and Fees- $3,125

Program Structure

This institute is completely virtual. Classes are delivered synchronously at a mutually beneficial time for our students on both the east and west coast. We understand this will be a strain for some of our international students and will work with on ways to make the most of your class schedule. Classes take place on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday midday from 11:00 AM- 12:30 PM EST and Tues and Thurs afternoons from 2:00-3:30 PM EST. Enrichment and student life activities will be held in both the early day and evening time frames (10am EST- 8pm EST)

Curious about how we are bringing the Young Women's Leadership to you? Check out our institute webinar!

The Curriculum

Without understanding the obstacles and discrimination that a group has faced, on cannot fully appreciate that their demand for equal treatment is in fact a struggle for civil rights. Covering queer U.S. History and Culture from the early 20th Century through the present, this course introduces students to how enforcement of and reaction against institutionalized discrimination have shaped the LGBTQ experience in this country. Students will learn not just about events but often-overlooked people who shaped the course of this history - often heroically. Our study of historical sources will be supplemented by visits from influential and dynamic guest speakers in the arts and humanities. Students will have an opportunity to study our guests' work in advance and discuss it with them when they visit. This course is not restricted to students who identify as LGBTQ - this history is important for everyone, so allies are welcome and encouraged!

Issues surrounding crime and policing are at the forefront of contemporary politics. From gun violence and mass incarceration to the policing of America’s borders, partisan voices are mobilizing the political energies and passions of Americans and New Yorkers to address how local, state and federal institutions should police society and individuals. This class will offer the opportunity to explore the history and politics of the theory and practice of policing citizens’ behavior, and how political movements on the left and the right have sought to change policy and practice to pursue and define justice and order. The class will involve a detailed examination of key debates surrounding prison reform, gun control, immigration, the use of deadly force by police officers, and the definition of crime and deviance. By exploring the deep histories of these debates students will better understand and advocate for change in the present. Students will compile a final project that presents a detailed plan to for a change they wish to see in the justice system, articulating why they feel the change is important and what practical steps will be necessary to achieve that change.

The Instructors

Thomas March

Queer Studies

Thomas March is a poet, teacher and critic based in New York City. His work has appeared in The Believer, Bellevue Literary Review, The Good Men Project, The Huffington Post, New Letters, Pleiades, and Public Pool, among others. His poetry column, "Appreciations," which offers appreciative close readings of poems from recent collections, appears regularly in Lambda Literary Review. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in poetry, and he is a past recipient of the Norma Millay Ellis Fellowship in Poetry, from the Millay Colony for the Arts. Aftermath, his first poetry collection, was selected by Joan Larkin for The Word Works Hilary Tham Capital Collection and will appear in Spring 2018.

Oliver Murphey

Activist New York

Oliver Murphey is a recent graduate from Columbia University’s History PhD program, with a background in 20th century U.S. political history, foreign policy and Latin America. A native New Yorker with an undergraduate degree from the University of Edinburgh and an MPhil in Historical Studies from Cambridge, he returned to the City of his birth to teach at Columbia, and now teaches at Fordham and Hunter. He also guides historical walking tours of New York, and teaches high school students at the Dalton School.

Leadership Lab Director

malla pic

Malla Haridat

Malla Haridat is as award winning entrepreneur, author, and founder of New Designs for Life Inc. an innovative training company. (NY State and NYC MWBE certified).

Malla has been recognized by the Mayor of New York City for her work as a mentor to entrepreneurs.

She has won the NYC Small Business Award for entrepreneurship innovation.

The New York Times did a full-page article on her work and said “Malla Haridat gets people thinking like an entrepreneur.”

Malla Haridat is a contributor to Black Enterprise, HuffingtonPost and has been quoted by Fox Small Business, ABC and Inc.

She has worked with Black Enterprise Magazine Entrepreneur Conference and sits on the Board of Advisors for Barnard College’s Entrepreneurship Group.

Malla has a degree from Columbia University and is the former Vice President of College Relations for the New York chapter of the National Board of African-American HR professionals.

She specializes in teaching people how to tackle the big question marks in their life to get the most important answers needed to experience success.

Malla started her entrepreneurial pursuits at age 16 when she sold the car she inherited from her grandmother to start a vending machine and when she’s not working, she resides in Westchester County where she is teaching her young daughter how to take advantage of life through entrepreneurial thinking.