Unveiling the Future: An Introduction to Leaders of Today and Our Vision for a Better Tomorrow
Hello Everyone and welcome to the Leaders of Today Blog! I am Jordan Reeves, the Executive Director of Leaders of Today. In this blog, you will hear from multiple people within the Leaders of Today organization. These people could be board members or participants and could be educators or bankers. Leaders of Today prides itself on our diversity and believes it makes our organization stronger.
I am going to go into detail about what Leaders of Today is and what we do, but first, I want to point out our name. The name, Leaders of Today, comes from a leadership conference, COLA, that I was able to attend during my sophomore year of high school. COLA (Central Ohio Leadership Academy) was founded by an amazing woman named Jordan Davis. Jordan had the first presentation during the COLA week. When she began, she asked us “Who has been told that they are the leaders of tomorrow?” while presenting a slide that stated “Leaders of Tomorrow”. She then clicked to the next slide which said “Leaders of Tomorrow” and said ‘That is bull crap, You all are the leaders of Today.” That statement is something that has stuck with me since. It doesn’t matter how young, or old, what socio-economic background you come from, or what race you are, you have the opportunity to be a leader of today. You don’t need to wait until you have more money or are older to start being a leader.
Leaders of Today is a nonprofit organization. Our mission is to help fund students ages 14 to 25 in efforts to better the Central Ohio community; giving them the ability to develop initiatives that bring together and improve the lives of those in our community. Our program attracts some of the best students that Central Ohio has to offer. Through this program, our goal is to build a network of leaders, encouraging them to use the lessons learned while working with Leaders of Today to continue to positively impact their communities. We encourage them to build up young leaders of their own, teaching them the importance of continued giving of time, resources, and talents; creating a ripple effect that will last for generations.
Our program has two major goals. First, our grant winners will earn a micro-grant ranging from $250 to $1,000. These will go directly to students who have an objective of improving their community. This could be at their school, place of worship, or the broader Central Ohio community. To help ensure the success of our students, we assign each of our award winners a mentor. These mentors will help the students with student-designed projects through brainstorming, making connections, and guiding students through the process. In order to determine how much each student will need, we have them create their budget and refine it with their mentor. This then gives us a metric on how much they will need. Our goal is to fully fund each student’s project up to $1,000 according to their budget. During the pilot year, the outcomes are to support five to seven student projects from brainstorming to implementation; develop student leadership and professionalism; engage students in their community; and advance design thinking and innovation. Service learning or community service/improvement projects will be eligible for funding. Students participate in the program for approximately 6-12 months. In subsequent years, additional projects will be funded and an alumni program will be built where students will network with and lead their peers.
The second mission of our organization is to teach students critical qualities in leadership. We do this through the creation of a curriculum including a video series, complementary workbooks, and other learning strategies, in addition to holding our annual leadership conferences. During our one-day conference, we invite students ranging from ages 14 to 25. Community leaders from throughout Central Ohio come and speak on 4 main topics: service, innovation, networking, and leadership as a whole. At the end of our free conference, an hour is devoted to our service fair and career counselors. Our service fair mobilizes Non-profit organizations from around the city to offer partnerships allowing students opportunities for involvement in organizations that can help them achieve their goals. Our career counselors can help students learn more about different career opportunities, help them find a career that fits them, and build a resume.
Applicant encouragement
As you can tell, Leaders of Today has a large net that we are casting. Our goal and my personal goal is to make a change that will create a ripple effect that will last for generations. Leadership always starts with a relationship so if you ever want to reach out to me feel free! My email is jordan@leadersoftodayco.com. Come back on the second Tuesday of each month for a new blog post!
