Last year was an exciting year for Valley Leadership! We built on the foundations of the first year of our reimagined programming and expanded the work of the Impact Maker. Let’s take a look at some of the important accomplishments over the last year.
The second year of VL’s Explore class has wrapped! The Class 2 Explore cohort gathered in mid June for a final reflection of the program and a celebratory dinner. The day was designed to create space for the group to get creative and connect over the shared experiences.
Explore Class 2 took the program’s 5th trip to Buckeye last week to learn more about economic development, local small business entrepreneurship, and all things sustainability.
Explore Class 2 recently traveled to Mesa, where participants had the chance to learn about the community’s focus on arts and culture, affordable housing efforts, economic development and immersive media experiences at the ASU MIX Center!
Explore Class 2 took the program’s first trip to South Phoenix last week for a day of farming and learning about the city’s education structures, economic development, and broad community outreach.
Explore’s second trip spent two days in Ambos Nogales (Spanish for “both Nogales”), which refers to the two cities with the same name: Nogales, Arizona, United States, and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Daisy Talavera, Valley Leadership’s new Director of Strategic Learning, dives into her experience with Explore Class 2 and their trip to Yuma! She describes learning about Yuma’s thriving agriculture industry, focus on education, widespread immigration and water issues, and community-oriented values.
To celebrate the start of Black History Month, we interviewed Gizette Knight, the founder of Shining Light Foundation. Keep reading to learn more about the Black History Mural Project, this year’s murals in Mesa and how Shining Light Foundation is supporting Arizona.
Explore takes participants out of their comfort zones to get to know the great diversity of the state and how our most pressing issues show up in rural, urban, suburban and Native communities. If you are a VL Alumni with a passion for forging connections while experiencing Arizona’s many diverse communities, this program is for you! Learn more about what participants can expect.
Last year was an exciting year for Valley Leadership as it brought the launch of two of our newest programs, Catalyze and Explore. The Impact Maker also saw lots of growth with the launch of three new teams. Thank you to all the alumni and community partners who have made all of these accomplishments possible!
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Applications for Explore Class 4 are now open! If you’re a VL alumni who is ready to step out of your comfort zone and travel to different communities across Arizona, we encourage you to apply today!