A unique service/learning program for future global leaders

I am proud to introduce the World Leadership Corps, a nonprofit service/learning organization based in on the idea that international volunteer service and cross-cultutal living can provide life-changing experience for future global leaders.  The WLC recruits, trains, and deploys young people with outstanding potential for leadership, typically recent college graduates, from both developed and developing countries, for a wide variety of service assignments, including educational programs, literacy campaigns, and projects in economic development, public health, sustainable agriculture, and environmental conservation.

In his recently published book, The Meaning of the 21st Century, Dr. James Martin, World Education Corps founder and chairman, advocates the creation of an international service program that unites the energy and idealism of youth to meet global needs and to prepare future leaders in the "transition generation" for their responsibilities in the critical decades ahead.  In the fall of 2003, with support from Dr. Martin, a volunteer service organization, the World Education Corps, was created.  In 2006, the organization refined its mission and changed its name to the World Leadership Corps. 

One of the most urgent needs in both the developing world and among the developed nations is conscientious, cross-culturally experienced, and well-informed leadership. Again and again, well-intentioned reforms and plans for addressing critical problems have failed owing to a breakdown in leadership, whether through ignorance, lack of cultural understanding, inadequate preparation, or corrupt practices. The WLC has been organized to prepare future leaders who are well informed about the challenges facing the planet, who have lived abroad and learned the unique lessons that come from cross-cultural encounter, and who have studied and reflected on the moral and professional responsibilities of those entrusted with leadership.

Through a one-year program of international service and a second year of academic study, leading to a master’s degree in international studies, WLC volunteers acquire both ground-level familiarity with some of the most pressing problems facing the global community and an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference – to discover the value and rewards of putting head and heart to work for others.

While following the pattern of the Peace Corps in a number of important respects, including the careful selection and training of volunteers and full provision for the costs of their travel, insurance, board and room, the WLC is significantly different in that it is an international organization, recruiting and placing volunteers from all corners of the world. The WLC maintains offices in New York and in Oxford, and it works with other NGOs in designing and managing the volunteer placements. One of the most important features of the WLC is its commitment to recruiting and training volunteers from the developing world. Without the WLC, there would be few opportunities for future leaders from Africa, Latin America, South and Southeastern Asia to participate in a two-year, fully supported service/learning program. During the first two years, our volunteers have come from Uganda, Ghana, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Argentina, the United States, and Australia.

In 2005, Dr. Martin endowed the James Martin 21st Century School at the University of Oxford. The World Leadership Corps is associated with the School, serving as an independent link between its research activities and WLC service projects throughout the world. During the WLC orientation program at Oxford, the volunteers have an opportunity to interact with scholars in the 21st Century School and to learn more about its mission and research projects. The WLC is also associated with Kellogg College at the University of Oxford, which has a long and distinguished history of leadership in non-traditional studies and international education.

During its first two years, the organization has sponsored volunteers in 14 countries in partnership with a number of outstanding international agencies, including iEARN (the International Education and Resource Network), the Earth Charter Initiative, the Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring (DREAM) Project, ECOLOGIA, and Curriki, a new nonprofit open source curriculum organization founded by Sun Microsystems.

We are enthusiastic about our unique mission and our potential for establishing a new pattern for global service and the preparation of future leaders. I invite you to discover more through this publication about our goals, our work over the past two years, and our future plans. In addition, I encourage you to contact us with any questions or comments.

email: info@worldleadershipcorps.org