The School For Ethics and Global Leadership opened this fall but just came into our view over the past few weeks; the school is in its first semester.

It’s an interesting idea- a semester-long leadership experience designed to be part of a student’s junior (11th grade) year.

Reading the school’s literature, global connection, understanding, empathy, and active, engaged leadership stand out as some of the school’s student goals. SEGL looks like it could be a great opportunity for strong, politically active students.

Much of SEGL’s thinking and pedagogy seems to grow out of Milton Academy‘s Mountain School where SEGL founder Noah Bopp previously worked.

On the practical side:

“Located in Washington, DC, the school is a selective, semester-long residential program for 32 intellectually motivated high school juniors from across the United States. The program selects students who have shown outstanding character, promise for leadership, and scholastic ability and provides them with a unique curriculum that emphasizes ethical thinking, leadership development, and international affairs. Highlights of the program include:

• A unique adaptation of a proven pedagogical model (the 11th grade semester school) that is well-known for creating transformative educational experiences

• Financial resources to ensure a student body that is racially and economically representative of the United States

• An innovative Ethics and Leadership course for all students

• Immersion in the resources of Washington, DC, including cooperative learning endeavors with leaders from the business, law, and political communities

• The use of interdisciplinary case studies across the curriculum

• Individual leadership profiles created by each student, as well as frequent and unique opportunities to practice leadership skills in an atmosphere of shared trust and accountability

• Introductory exposure to Arabic and Chinese language and culture for all students

• A collaborative, student-written policy document responding to a current global challenge; students will lobby for implementation of the document’s recommendations once the document is published

• Reunion conferences after graduation to help students solidify learning, build connections, and look toward future challenges

• A curriculum designed to meet or exceed honors-level/AP requirements at schools around the country (SEGL)

SEGL’s philosophical underpinnings (from “The Case for SEGL“):

“America needs a new kind of leader. It needs leaders who are literate in the critical challenges facing our world. It needs leaders who can navigate with integrity the ambiguities of modern business, law, medicine, domestic politics, and international relations. It needs thoughtful activists, passionate social entrepreneurs, and relentless humanitarians.

If we show a talented, motivated cohort of young Americans how to be this kind of leader, that group will create currents of hopeful, infectious, and powerful change throughout the world.

The best time for this sort of inspiration is the junior year of high school: the critical moment just as young people are gaining the ability to think seriously about complex ideas and just before they confront the college admissions process. If we catch promising students at this moment and challenge them with new information, new questions, and new possibilities, we can help motivate these young people to change the world.

The school described in this document presents a compelling, unique opportunity to do just that. Located in Washington, DC, the School for Ethics and Global Leadership is a selective, semester-long residential program for 32 intellectually motivated high school juniors from across the United States. The program selects students who have shown outstanding character, promise for leadership, and scholastic ability and provides them with a unique curriculum that emphasizes ethical thinking, leadership development, and international affairs…” (SEGL Business Plan)

SEGL’s strong rigorous curriculum combined with capable students interested in policy and the larger picture presents a great opportunity for students looking toward modern leadership and policy issues.