As we entered our 2019-2020 academic year, little could we imagine that we would be living through one of the greater global disruptions of our lifetimes. But despite the challenges, Georgetown University's Latin America Leadership Program (LALP) was not only able to smooth away the challenges but come up with new initiatives to support and keep our growing alumni network connected through the new times.
Before the pandemic, LALP closed 2019 with three unique programs on campus to activate principled and effective leadership in the public sector. These included the sixth edition of our Innovation and Leadership in Government Program (ILG), a three-week intensive program at Georgetown that welcomed 26 public managers from 10 Latin American countries, and we hosted two custom programs in collaboration with Fundacion Botin in Spain and the Barna School of Business in the Dominican Republic.
Then 2020 arrived. With it, we kicked off the fourteenth edition of our Global Competitiveness Leadership Program (GCL), with 36 young leaders from Latin America and Spain, who brought with them many great expectations as we looked forward to a new decade of opportunities for the region. But, as many others experienced, from one day to another, we had to move our in-person instruction to virtual learning and abruptly bade farewell to a fantastic group of individuals as they returned to their countries through impending travel restrictions.
Nevertheless, with every crisis, there comes new ways of thinking. Thus, we opened applications for a new virtual edition of our ILG program and launched two webinar series with renowned experts and LALP alumni to reflect on the past, present, and future of the region and to suggest frameworks to move forward.
Almost 15 years after our first program launched, thanks to our Latin American Board and Advisory Committee members' guidance and support, more than 600 leaders of the region have passed through our flagship programs, which join the many others who participated in our custom programs and events. Our alumni continue to positively impact the lives of many, promoting Jesuit values of cura personalis (care of the whole person) and women and men for others, and activating the mindset that the region can achieve great things by working together. Therefore, we will continue to move forward because our program participants and alumni inspire us every day and guide the new generation of leaders of the region. Thank you to all those who support us and collaborate with us every year to make our programs possible.
Sincerely,
Ricardo Ernst
LALP Executive Director
