Creating an Oasis, Building Community Leaders
W
ould you choose to get
together with nineteen
strangers for nine months
to explore community service and your
potential as a leader? This was exactly
the journey that Leadership Morgan
Hill’s Class of 2016 began in January
and completed on September 19 th , when
graduates of the leadership program
walked across the stage at Guglielmo
Winery to the cheers and applause of
their friends and loved ones.
As a Class of 2016 alumna, I’d like
to share highlights of our journey.
Leadership Morgan Hill is a training
and developmental program created to
inspire interested persons to become
future leaders in community service.
The concept of this non-profit pro-
gram originated with the Chamber of
Commerce. Today there are similar leader-
ship programs in more than 50 California
communities, including Morgan Hill and
Gilroy.
Leadership Morgan Hill began in 1995
and now boasts more three hundred
alumni. Alumni members guided our
class through a curriculum covering all
aspects of community service and leader-
ship related to local and state government,
economics, education, public safety and
other areas.
We began with an overnight retreat
with group exercises to help us learn
about each other, program goals, and
a little bit about our preferred leader-
ship styles. Our class was very diverse,
including a retired fireman, a police
officer, a bookstore owner, city work-
ers, healthcare professionals, educators,
bankers, realtors, and even a few world
travelers. There was time to socialize, and
bonds began to form.
Each month, we met for an evening
session with a guest speaker, and
attended a day-long session to meet
community leaders from all walks of life
for an in-depth look at various aspects of
community service. My personal favorite
was the overnight trip to Sacramento for
State Government Day, which included
face-to-face meetings with some of our
elected officials and other government
staffers whose work impacts our com-
by Kathy Sullivan
munity. In one of our leadership training
exercises, we had a chance to participate
in debates.
Key to achieving the program’s goal
to develop leadership skills is the class
project. Our class was asked to come up
with a community service project that we
could complete within our nine-month
training program. This gave us first-hand
experience in group dynamics and
leadership skills.
We decided to create a “Community
Oasis” — a serene garden environment to
inspire youth and connect a neighborhood.
For our location, we chose Central High
School on Tilton Avenue in Morgan Hill.
The former elementary school site
had been updated in 2013 to serve as a
continuation high school and community
center. However, little attention had been
paid to the surrounding grounds, which
were in need of TLC. Our class had just
nine months to come up with a concept,
get board approval, create a design plan,
raise funds to finance the project, manage
the project and budget, and publicize it.
We felt the urgency to get started
“Kathy’s background in healthcare made her the ideal candidate to
oversee AAUW’s new Lauren Jenkins Healthcare Scholarship, which
will be awarded to a qualified female student pursuing a healthcare
career. Kathy is a strong positive role model, something we value
highly, and she is a joy to work with.” “I love Kathy’s wholehearted involvement in Morgan Hill
community life. She has taken on key responsibilities at the Morgan
Hill Downtown Association and was very welcoming when I joined
the board. Kathy brings to meetings an open, roundtable style of
communication that encourages people to share their ideas.”
Brittney Sherman, President,
Morgan Hill Downtown Association
Mary Cox, Co-President,
AAUW Morgan Hill
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016
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