About the Program
The Leadership Development Program (LDP) is a transformational virtual program that empowers Sikh American youth to become effective leaders committed to exploring and realizing both their personal potential and that of the Sikh American community.
Since its founding in 2010, the Leadership Development Program (LDP) has recruited young Sikhs from all over the country and helped them chart a new course for their future. This program inspires, trains, and supports a diverse, motivated, and entrepreneurial group of young Sikh leaders as they prepare for a lifetime of community engagement and leadership.
SikhLEADers have gone on to build power and expertise. Our alumni are graduate students at top universities, hold elected positions on their college campuses, and have become daring creative minds who sing on American Idol and travel the country to tell the stories of Sikhs in America via Sikh Monologues.
This transformative program creates an atmosphere in which Sikh leaders can use state-of-the-art training methodologies to explore their unique leadership potential and set goals for their future. This Leadership Development program will build upon the experiences, knowledge, and skills of Sikh participants to create leaders committed to expanding youth opportunities, supporting cross-cultural cooperation, and solving public problems. Simultaneously, participants form a cooperative network of young Sikh leaders and forge meaningful bonds.
Participants will:
- Develop a clear understanding of their unique leadership profile through participation in a set of highly participatory group and individual activities
- Create a personal mission statement
- Develop new skills in public speaking, conflict resolution, goal-setting, project management, and peer coaching
- Learn to apply conflict resolution strategies and tools for effectively managing conflict in interpersonal settings and use strategies that promote mutual understanding and the peaceful resolution of differences
- Increase awareness of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, culture, and identity
- Forging lasting bonds with each other, addressing areas of conflict stemming from stereotypes and negative socialization, and forming a diverse and cooperative network of young leaders.
- Leverage his or her new skills and relationships in designing, refining, and executing a small-scale project (individually, or as part of a team) that seeks to address an issue of concern to the Sikh community.
