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NEW Leadership Virginia program develops next generation of leaders
After seeing an announcement on Student Happenings, a twice-weekly email to students with updates and opportunities available both on and off campus, Eleni Orphanos ‘27 unknowingly applied for a life-changing experience.
Over the summer, Orphanos attended the NEW Leadership Virginia program. Held through the Gender and Policy Center at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government in Arlington, Virginia, this week-long leadership conference is an opportunity for women enrolled in colleges and universities across Virginia to gain professional experience from women in various professional fields, while also developing their personal growth as leaders.
“We got to hear from a lot of great leader women leaders, professional women, and women in different fields. They came and talked to us a little bit about what their roles were and gave us advice on how to become better leaders, speak up, and put ourselves out there as college students,” Orphanos said.
As part of the first cohort to participate in the program, Orphanos joined 15 other students as they completed various activities designed to strengthen their leadership skills.
“We had a project where we were broken up into groups, and we used the data centers as our kind of policy focus [on] what to do about data centers in Prince William County. We had one side arguing to block a legislation that would put more regulation on data centers and one side arguing that we needed regulation on data centers. And then the third group acted like our board watching to decide which [policy] they were going to adopt,” said Orphanos.
Along with the speakers and group projects, the cohort also toured Capitol Hill, where they met several representatives. These opportunities helped make Orphanos' experience with the program so meaningful, especially as a government student.
“I think it was such a transformative experience for me just to be able to grow as a leader myself too. This conference really pushed me to just put myself out there. Like, even if you make mistakes, even if you don't do something 100% correctly, it's much better to try than to not do anything at all. And I think that's really helped me in terms of my confidence as I go into applying for [future] internships,” said Orphanos.
“It made me really excited to move forward and see where my path takes me, and I would highly, highly recommend it to anyone that is even remotely interested. There's no harm in applying.”
NEW Leadership Virginia is now accepting applications for the Summer 2025 session. The application deadline is Monday, March 31, 2025.