You may have noticed a mention of our newest program in our last post and thought “hey wait—did you say Leadership Academy??”
If you’re unfamiliar, our Leadership Academy is a seven-week intensive program designed to help emerging leaders from historically excluded backgrounds develop their own leadership goals, as well as the skills and resources they need to overcome the unique barriers that members of our community face in the workplace. Now in its third year, the Academy has supported dozens of emerging leaders in our ecosystem and looks forward to many more.
Okay—but where did it come from?
Amplify has always been about enabling more people of historically excluded backgrounds (especially along intersecting lines of race, gender identity, ability, and sexual orientation) to thrive as leaders in tech. Historically, we’ve done this via technical education programs, community building events, and allyship discussion spaces, and we’re deeply proud of every story of impact our members have shared.
But we also observed that many of our members needed something a little different to make their leadership legible to others and sustainable for themselves. In order to believe that they should step into formal leadership roles, they needed to see that there were models for leadership that could fit their values. In order to make the most of those roles, they needed a way to recognize and face the challenges of working in an environment where all kinds of biases are stacked against them. And in order to stay in leadership roles for the long haul, they needed a community of people who saw and understood them for their skills and insights.
Enter the Leadership Academy. Over the course of each cohort, we aim to help our participants craft their own leadership goals, styles, and strategies; connect meaningfully with other emerging leaders; and come to terms with the power that comes with all kinds of leadership roles.
Our goal is to create a space where community leaders, people managers, and those who lead without a formal title can develop a toolkit to help create the world they want to see around them, even as they face systemic and individual barriers unique to their historically excluded backgrounds and identities.
So far, our Leadership Academy participants have taken what they learned from and taught each other (and us!) and made incredible strides on their leadership paths. Two of them shared their stories at Amplify’s 10th anniversary celebration in 2023 and I hope you’ll hear even more as this post comes out. We’re continually inspired by the drive, courage, empathy, and authenticity of our emerging leaders—qualities that are desperately needed in leaders throughout tech and beyond.
Interested, or know an emerging leader who should be part of our next cohort? Applications for fall 2024 are open now.
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