Growing Leaders, Not Insiders
The heart of our program is providing experiential learning opportunities in intimate settings with the commonwealth’s most successful civic leaders.
Distinguished Virginia Fellows
Each semester, our advisory board will recruit a cohort of Distinguished Virginia Fellows, who are emerging and current civic leaders, former elected officials, and senior policymakers from a variety of industries across Virginia. Our Distinguished Virginia Fellows will host bi-weekly discussion groups with students to highlight current events, specific policy areas and Wason Center survey research. The discussions will focus on how successful civic leaders engage with and work through public challenges using our values as a guide.
The Distinguished Virginia Fellows will also schedule office hours throughout the semester to meet with students one-on-one to discuss career goals, to challenge them to seek out public service opportunities and to help them network within their interest areas.
Civic Leadership Speaker Series
In conjunction with the Christopher Newport President’s Leadership Program, the Wason Center will host noteworthy speakers in the Diamonstein Concert Hall to talk about civic leadership, data-driven decision making, current events and public service. While students are the primary audience, the local community will be invited, too.