Citizen Leadership Curriculum

The Segal Program welcomes all new Fellows during their first year through an interactive, competency-based citizen leadership curriculum taught by Program staff. This curriculum is designed to build a common language and knowledge base across Fellows around our core competencies and to help prepare Fellows to be thoughtful, social-justice-focused leaders, while building a sense of community among our incoming cohort of Fellows.

1. Reflecting on their journey as citizen leaders and sharing their "River Story"
2. Understanding and applying lessons from social policy and history (Fellow-led presentations on the history of movements that inspire them)
3. Acting as “citizens of the world,” who lead socially just change and understand effective leadership
   • Strengths-based leadership (Strengthsfinder2.0)
   • Exploration of leadership styles (Leadership Compass)
   • What leaders balance (process, results, relationships)
4. Having visionary goals and building social capital
   • The importance of vision
   • Goal setting
   • Social capital and community cultural wealth
   • 16-Squares activity (adapted from Shoshanna Cogan)
5. Coalition and relationship building
   • Group/Professional values and norms
   • The Social Change Ecosystem Map (Deepa Iyer)
   • Leveraging relevant experiences from Fellows’ past
6. Communicating, collaborating, and learning with diverse communities, and honoring diversity of thought, lessons and individuals
   • Cultural Competence Continuum
   • Identity Circles
   • Racial Literacy
   • Developing shared DEI language (including some definitions from Brandeis’ ODEI)
7. Understanding the role of privilege in society and how to leverage it
   • White supremacy culture
   • Matrix of social identities, privilege and oppression
   • Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility
8. Using evaluation as a tool for social justice
   • An introduction to evaluation from The Center for Youth and Communities
   • Continuous Improvement
9. Recognizing and inspiring leadership and mentoring others
10. Understanding the full spectrum of civic engagement and taking action
11. Bringing it all together and moving forward with your leadership
    • Bringing Your Full Self to Your Citizen Leadership
    • Questioning and Recognizing Imposter Syndrome
    • Self advocacy
    • "The Unspoken Complexity of Self Care" by Deanna Zandt
    • Strategizing for success & leveraging your strengths

This is just a sample of some of the elements highlighted in our curriculum. We are always looking to expand our curriculum based on the input of our Fellows and partners. Feel free to share your ideas by contacting Segal Program Director Susie Flug-Silva at (flugsilva@brandeis.edu).