Small Investments. Expanding Influence.

The barriers to youth leadership aren't motivational — they're structural. A 2026 national survey of 1,517 high school students across 42 states makes that clear. In response, the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) and InnerView are launching the National Youth Leadership Academy (NYLA): a hybrid, competency-based program that brings high-quality civic leadership development to any motivated student, regardless of zip code or school resources. Students build skills in civic engagement, empathy, collaboration, and communication — earning digital badges and certificates that 78% of surveyed students say matter to their college and career goals. This grant funds Tier 1: an 8–10 week experience culminating in an Emerging Leader Certificate.

At the heart of this project is a story-puzzle game format — combining script reading, role-playing, mystery-solving, and cross-cultural decision-making — purpose-built to teach young leaders how to navigate cultural differences in real workplace situations. This grant funds the two foundational components that make the experience possible: Scriptwriting & Narrative Development and Game Flow & Session Design — the characters, plot branches, embedded cultural tensions, and puzzle-solving structure of the game itself. A draft version pilots in US-Jordan Virtual Exchange Courses this April, with student feedback shaping professional development in Summer 2026 and full implementation that Fall. Developed at SUNY Oneonta by Dr. Liyao Pan, whose work draws on extensive cross-cultural leadership research , the game gives American college students a chance to learn — and learn from failure — in a way that sticks.

Many young professionals enter leadership roles without real training — promoted for excelling at their jobs, then asked to lead people, manage conflict, and make hard decisions with little preparation. This gap is especially acute in helping fields like counseling, education, healthcare, and ministry. Divine Mercy University's LifeLong Learning Institute addresses it directly with Mapping the Leadership Terrain 3.0: a 30-hour, mostly asynchronous online program guiding learners step-by-step from leading self, to one-on-one leadership, to teams, to organizations. What makes it distinctive is its integration — combining Catholic moral and spiritual formation with evidence-based leadership tools and psychology-informed skills like emotional intelligence, filling a gap that most faith-based leadership programs leave open. This grant functions as a catalytic investment: converting an already-designed curriculum into a tested, replicable model DMU and partner organizations can scale broadly, with low marginal cost after year one — and a fully documented course blueprint that can serve faith-based leadership educators nationally.