CEO Mehran Assadi announced on Tuesday the 16 members who will take part in the 2018 Strategic Thinking Initiative.
The 16 are:
The 16 were chosen by the Executive Management Team from a pool of 151 video applications submitted by employees throughout organization.
Originally, the class of 2018 was set at 10 students but Mehran said that he had decided to increase the number to 16 because of the large pool of highly enthusiastic applicants.
In addition, Mehran announced that all of the other applicants would be enrolled in a special leadership training program that – like the Strategic Leadership Initiative – would be led by New York University’s Roseanna DeMaria.
The Strategic Thinking Initiative (STI) was launched in 2016 through New York University’s School of Professional Studies. The inaugural class of seven National Life students graduated last year after completing the NYU certificate program in Strategic Thinking and Transformational Leadership.
“STI has been a bold experiment for us,” said Mehran. “It is the next step as we continue to build out National Life as a learning organization.”
The announcement of the class of 2018 came Tuesday morning in a meeting of all 151 applicants – held jointly on the Vermont and Texas campuses and broadcast to remote employees around the country.
Kristin Cook, one of the 2017 graduates, spoke to the group about her experience in the class, which she said had a very dramatic impact on her approach to leadership.
See all the STI videos here.
The applicants voted five so-called “Rosie Awards,” named for program dean Rosanna DeMaria.
Rosie Awards:
Funniest Video – Aslin Trepanier
Best Use of Props – Ian McKenny
Most Words in 90 Seconds – Stephen Wallach
Most Fearless – Megan Hand
Most Inspiring – Tracey Ullom
Each of the 151 applicants received a gift of a Simon Pearce candle inscribed with “Light The Leadership Within.”
The meeting included table discussions with members of the Executive Management Team about the lessons learned from the videos and from the application process.
There are a lot more photos from the event for employees to see on National Life Today.