领导不断变化的世界

This year marks 20 years for UNC’s Stryker Institute for 领导 Development, and the program continues to make a difference for students, and gives them leadership skills to go on and make a difference in the lives of others. 

As the Stryker Institute for 领导 Development prepared to celebrate its 20th anniversary in late September, it did something it has been doing since its beginnings: It gave voice to the women who have been part of its transformative efforts. Stryker学者 是 asked about the impact the program has had on their lives — and, exponentially, on the people and communities around them — and they shared an outpouring of strength, 感恩与社区:  

“作为一名女性和一名职业球员，我成长了很多. 我来自一个没有 siblings made it to the end of middle school, and neither of my parents made it to the end of elementary, I am now blessed with a master’s degree and with a very high probability of my 孩子们 also achieving a high education and a brighter future... 因为 你的信任改变了我的生活.”  

“I felt crushed by the weight of being a youngish, poor single mom and that’s all 我能看到自己的内心. 史崔克帮助改变了这一点.” 

“I think the most impactful aspect by far is that I have agency, I have power in how 我的故事结束了. 我并不孤单.”  

“的 leadership skills cultivated while in Stryker empowered me to believe in myself 并帮助其他人也这样做(包括我的女儿).”  

“Stryker helped me find my voice and made me feel comfortable in leadership positions. 现在 with a family and two daughters, I wish to pass on that understanding of leadership 和赋权. I also hope to show them that being in community with fellow women 色彩是一种强大而美妙的体验.”  

“Being the first one from my siblings to graduate from high school and college allowed me to see that I would not only change the future for myself but the future for my 孩子们.”

“I do not believe I would have had the opportunity to pursue higher education without 这样的经历. In recognizing that the Stryker opportunity is so unique, I only wish that (students at) universities across the globe were able to obtain the same educational opportunity as well as reflection on identities that I have been able 通过这种经验获得.”

的 Stryker program’s work to elevate women economically, and to nurture leadership skills, understanding and agency, has transformed the lives of 524 Stryker学者s, and 在这个过程中 改变了很多人.  

连锁反应  

Stryker 从小就有一种帮助他人的意识. 她母亲是一个传教士 parents in China; her grandfather, an orthopedist, developed tools to help others, 成立史赛克医疗公司，一家全球性公司.   

She came to UNC in September 2001 for the dedication of the Institute in Scott-Wilcoxon 大厅. “这是 more about the students than it is about me,” she said at the time. “这是 博天堂官方网站能够追随梦想.”   

的 institute has held to that ideal, giving Stryker scholars opportunities to pursue their dreams — and empowering them to enter their communities prepared to lead in 他们的生活和职业.

While a student at UNC, Ronda spent time with a migrant farm family which in part shaped her vision and served as the catalyst for her gift to UNC. 她想象着 contribution to enable and empower women from underrepresented groups who would benefit 从 获得更多的机会和资源.  

In a 2001 article for UNC’s Spectrum magazine, Stryker said, “I think it has always 成为我的一部分. Ever since I was born, I have had this thing in me to want to see 人们追随自己的梦想.”  

从第一天起  

Noemi ’02 and 伊丽莎白 ’19 Medina — Stryker学者s 20 years apart — developed leadership skills that make a difference in their 教室s and communities.

It was late July and like many teachers around the country, Noemi Medina ’02 and 伊丽莎白 Medina ’19 were back-to-school shopping for their 教室s. 两人都在格里利学校教书 Salida Del Sol Academy, a K-8 dual immersion school where mom Noemi teaches second 她的女儿伊丽莎白是一名三年级教师.   

“我们有一个清单，”诺埃米说. “我们说，‘这就是我们要做的，我们只是 明白了，就这样，我们搞定了.’”   

As teachers, they have a common interest in their students — in making their learning environment welcoming and effective and giving them a good start in school. 但这是 并不是所有的共同点. 诺埃米是史崔克学者的第一批成员 in 2001, and 伊丽莎白 graduated as a Stryker学者 from UNC in 2019.   

伊丽莎白 has memories of her mother studying with her “Stryker sisters” when she 她自己也只有四五岁. “我记得和女儿一起玩 她(史崔克)的一个姐妹. 我们总是躲在桌子底下涂色 他们在学习，”她说. 所以，我从第一天起就和史崔克在一起 当我来到博天堂官方，我知道我要成为一名教师.”  

As Noemi worked to make her dreams of teaching a reality, she got to know and work with women in the earliest days of the program, when many of the women in the program 非传统学生有孩子吗.   

“When I see Stryker now, it’s changed compared to what we did. 我们聚在一起， 学习 ，建立一种联系，”她说. “现在， 他们不仅专注于领导力， but they really focus on teaching you how to own your identity, to own who you are as a person, and to love yourself for who you are, and how you can use your identity 让你成为真正的领导者，”诺埃米说.  

的 importance of education was instilled in Noemi from a young age. 出生于墨西哥， she came to the United States when she was two years old and says her father would 告诉她 和她的兄弟姐妹，“我是来为你们工作的. 你们一定要 接受教育.她把他的话牢记在心. 从高中开始她就去上学了 for a cosmetology license, then started taking classes to become a teacher.   

She administered English language assessments for District 6 before becoming a school 他是格里利比利马丁内斯小学的秘书. 在那里, 她  鼓励 去攻读 教育 学位.   “我一直想成为一名教师. 这是其一 我的计划，”她说.   

她的丈夫 也鼓励她. “我白天工作，晚上上学。” she says, adding that her husband and mother-in-law helped with 伊丽莎白 while she 攻读学位.   

Financially, Noemi says the generous Stryker scholarship made a critical difference. “At that time, my husband was just starting his general contracting business. So, financially it helped a lot, but it also helped me become a leader, because I never “我认为我是一个领导者，”她说. “I was always more to myself, just quiet, and (Stryker) helped 我把领导力展现出来. 我听很多研究史崔克的人这么说，时间 together) brings joy to them because they’re able to be themselves and not be afraid 被评判.”

In addition to scholarship support, students receive a laptop computer and participate in seminars, discussions and activities that develop their leadership skills. 的 program also partners Stryker scholars with eighth-grade students at Salida del Sol 参加姐姐/妹妹辅导计划.  

Those moments of community and understanding are hallmarks of the program and are 那么多Stryker 学者 都记得这改变了他们的生活. 

难以忘怀的领导  

“的 leadership component of the program has been here from day one,” says Yvette Lucero-Nguyen ' 09, Stryker研究所所长. “我认为镜头 通过 we view leadership has started to be refined based on what’s happening in our society and what 需求是.”  

Lucero-Nguyen, who has directed the program for the last nine years, has seen the impact Stryker has had on students and on alumni as they reach out to their communities.  

“他们 spend that first year establishing a foundation of understanding on social justice while focusing on understanding their identities, asking, ‘How do I understand them in the context of our society, and within privilege and oppression?' 我们曾经有过 developed an understanding of ourselves through identity, we allow that to be the lens through which we begin to explore leadership in our second year. 通过这样做， we can better understand how we navigate as leaders, and how it’s different for each 我们中的一个基于我们所拥有的身份. 它 成为了一个基础部分 we realized needed to 存在, to really understand how to unpack our leadership, and how to use identities as a tool for empowerment, and to be able to lead with that.”  

这种领导方式是独一无二的.   

“It challenges the traditional norms of leadership and who we identify as leaders. If we lined up a bunch of people, and said, ‘Pick out who you think is a leader. 谁 是吗??’ I think people are drawn to a traditional view of who that might be, just 基于他们的外表. 我们不这么做. 我们接受这一点，然后说这不是 存在.”  

It’s an approach that helps students see how, as leaders, they can support others. “It helps them to be aware of others, and their identities, and the communities they 卢塞罗-阮说:“我们来自哪里. “这有助于他们问，‘我如何承认和支持 the identities others hold,’  whether it’s in the 教室 with their students, or 而是作为照顾病人的护士? 我经常听到他们是如何学会导航的 as a leader and use their voice, and understanding why it’s important.” 

Those lessons help them reach out into their families and their communities as well. “的 way in which our students take what they learned here, and share it with other people, whether that’s their brothers and sisters, their parents, their students, their patients, their clients, whoever that is, that’s the ripple effect. 我们说, ‘If you share that knowledge with other people, and invest in other people, the way we have with you all, then that ripple effect just keeps happening,’” she says. 

建设安全教室  

伊丽莎白 Medina, who went through all four years of school as a Stryker学者, says that the seminars and discussions have helped her talk about subjects that may 曾经很难 表达自己的想法吗.  

“作为老师，我们必须把它带入课堂. 我们的孩子 必须 知道有 a 有避风港. A lot of the things we learned through Stryker, we actually use 在我们的教室里和孩子们在一起，”她说. “他们必须知道他们能够说话 对某个人，信任某个人，做自己就可以了. 当你有一个教室 like that, where they feel safe, your school year is wonderful.”  

Creating a 教室 that is safe creates a 教室 where students can learn, and 教室s of today 存在 in a society that is different from a generation ago. 伊丽莎白 says that knowing how to answer questions students are curious about has been an important 她的技能.   

“In all honesty, when I started Stryker, I was very oblivious to these topics. 他们 were things that we did not discuss in our home, coming from a traditional Mexican 回家，”她说. “这是 hard to sit at the table and be like, ‘OK, let’s have this discussion about racism, or let’s have this discussion about sexuality.’ 

“Last year was the first year we had a topic about sexuality come up in a third-grade 教室. 这些现在是学生的标准标准. 这对我来说很容易 able to have an open conversation with my students about it because I have the background, thanks 给史崔克，” 她说. “Our world is not the same, and it’s going to be constantly 改变. Stryker really does help open up to that mentality that we have to continuously keep learning as adults and as humans, because we have to keep up what’s going to 从现在开始进入我们的世界.” UNC

——黛比·皮特纳·摩尔斯