Tag: District Leadership Fellows

As they reached the halfway point of their year-long fellowship this month, SMU’s 2019-2020 cohort of District Leadership Fellows came together to discuss their personal and district progress.

District Leadership Fellows practiced stressful leadership situations and active listening techniques using the Mursion simulation environment in the Simmons School of Education & Human Development at SMU.

The District Leadership Fellows met at SMU for their second session on October 23^rd.  Superintendents built upon the framework they learned at the Kick Off, updated their Impact Models and added Active Listening to their skill set.

As SMU students settled in for their first round of exams, a new cohort of the Institute for Leadership Impact’s flagship program kicked off at the Simmons School of Education and Human Development. With the construction of SMU’s new Ford Hall for Research & Innovation as a backdrop, thirteen District Leadership Fellows from all over the northeast Texas region reflected on the most effective ways to approach their unique leadership roles.

“We have been dedicated to career and college access work at SMU since 1966. We actually have some of the oldest running college access programs in the country, so we’re really part of a legacy.” – Dr. David Deggs   

“Across the nation, we have increasingly ambitious goals for student learning, which equates to increasingly ambitious goals for instruction.” – Dr. Annie Wilhelm 

At the Rural Superintendent Leadership Symposium, we invited you to be a part of the conversation on creating meaningful change in rural districts.  We hope you left with a renewed spirit of commitment to and enthusiasm for the millions of Texas students served by rural schools.

Rural superintendents occupy a complex leadership role.

They’re responsible for setting a vision, executing a strategy, and motivating those around them, all with limited resources. The SMU District Leadership Fellows program enhances rural district leaders’ leadership capacity in these areas and beyond. The program provides participants with leadership tools and peer-support to create and sustain effective strategies for the unique change projects they envision for their communities.