ISLI: International Student Leadership Institute
The 27th Session of the International Student Leadership Institute (ISLI) was held at the Jugendgästehaus in Oberwesel, Germany from 02-07 March, 2008. This six-day experiential learning program for developing leadership skills in high-school students allowed 75 DoDDS-Europe students to live, work, and learn, with 75 students from top Gymnasiums in the following countries: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
The curriculum is based on a book written especially for ISLI by Dr. Robert Woyach (a professor at Ohio State University), entitled Preparing for Leadership, A Young Adult's Guide to Leadership Skills in a Global Age. The book provides a structure for understanding leadership, based on the following skills: Envisioning, Consensus-Seeking, Negotiation, Creating Rewards, Creating an Image, Gaining Legitimacy, Advocacy, Coalition Building, Perspective Taking, and Group Context.
What makes ISLI exceptional is that the students themselves present the leadership skills to their peers. Each year at the end of the institute, students can run for election to the Board of Regents. If elected, they become the training staff for the following year's institute. There were three DoDDS-Europe students on the 2008 Board of Regents: Philip Greene from Naples High School, Brent Snyder from Kaiserslautern High School, and Jonathan Keith from Ramstein High School. They were part of an international team (including students from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, and the Netherlands) of thirteen students who were entirely responsible for the presentation of leadership skills. The three DoDDS-Europe students elected to the 2009 Board of Regents are: Cherese Lewis from Patch American High School, Zachary Burdick from Kaiserslautern High School, and Anthony Devlin from Alconbury High School.
After each leadership skill was presented by the Student Regents, ISLI participants had break out-sessions in their "Color Groups." Color Groups stayed together for the duration of the week and consisted of approximately 15 students each. They were formed ensuring a heterogeneously mixed group of students of varying nationalities. In each Color Group, participants were asked to process and synthesize the information presented by the Student Regents and were assigned a task to complete and present to the whole group at the conclusion of each session. As the days passed, the students began to realize that their small group becomes the setting for the actual development of their own leadership skills.
In addition to learning leadership skills, participants explored various leadership styles and identified which style they have a personal preference for. A major aspect of identifying a personal leadership style is to develop an understanding of one’s own personality. To achieve this understanding, all participants took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator MBTI, (a personality inventory that helped them identify their own personality traits) and attended a session explaining the results of the MBTI and the implications for leadership.
Students also had the opportunity to apply the leadership skills they were learning by being active participants in the ISLI Issues Forum. This year the 2008 Issues Forum topic chosen by the Student Board of Regents was: How should surveillance be used? Where is it necessary? Where does it cross the line? Participants researched, discussed, and debated the topic while exercising such leadership skills as Consensus-Seeking and Coalition Building.
The twenty-seventh session of ISLI proved to be an intense, challenging, and exhilarating experience. The DoDDS-Europe students clearly benefited from a chance to interact with peers from other countries while building leadership skills.