UC Launches Women in Leadership and Learning Program

A new program, known as WILL, for Women in Leadership and Learning, aims to build leadership among University of Cincinnati's women students in a community setting over the course of their college years. The program applies classroom and experiential learning components built on themes of social justice and activism.  The new program will begin in the fall of 2012.

Collaborating in WILL’s development are the UC Women’s Center and the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in UC’s McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. The program incorporates a core curriculum based in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as well as co-curricular leadership development programming coordinated through the Women’s Center. Amy Howton, Assistant Director of the Women's Center, coordinates the program with assistance from WILL student workers Dylan Colvin and Tasha Vaught.

“WILL is a multi-year learning community comprised of both academic and co-curricular experiences designed to develop a student’s leadership over the course of her collegiate experience,” Howton said.

The UC program is modeled on the original WILL program established at the University of Richmond in 1980.

“WILL was created in response to scholarship demonstrating that the self-confidence of women students plummets in their college years,” Vaught said. “Since its inception over 30 years ago, WILL has gained considerable national recognition. The UC program focuses on applied learning so that students grow as individuals, build community, and work toward creating social change.”

WILL was created to encompass the key, three touch points of a students’ collegiate experience: first year experience, mid-collegiate, and senior year experience. 

“These touch points are effectively structured through both required, sequential academic courses and developmental, multi-year co-curricular experiences,” Howton said.

Applications to participate in WILL are due by Friday, May 4. For more information on WILL, or to download an application, visit:
http://www.uc.edu/ucwc/WILL.html