I can't believe it has already been two years since I posted a note on this blog about my involvement with the Horizons leadership program. This seven day experience was designed by a team of leadership experts to enrich the lives of exceptional college sophomores. By investing in this group of young men, we in turn foster the development of the families, communities, organizations and businesses which they will lead throughout their lives. In June of 2007, I had the opportunity to complete the training program to become a Horizons Guide, or facilitator and mentor. Tomorrow, I will be heading out to Snowbird Lodge in Utah to take a group of eight sophomores on their leadership journey.

Over the years, I have done a lot of college mentoring through similar programs, particularly at San Jose State University, Stanford University and through the Balfour Leadership Training Workshop each summer. I wholeheartedly believe in the ripple effect of one leader mentoring a few more young leaders who mentor a few more younger leaders. We all know that the world is currently starving for people with leadership skills, but I think we are also devoid of mentorship programs. We are all expected to learn from books, but the concepts of coaching and apprenticeship are fizzling. We live in a funny world where some of the most important roles that people can take (such as leader, parent, or coach) come without formal training. How can we expect to improve if we don't properly invest in our future? For these reasons, I couldn't be more excited about tomorrow's trip to Utah.

I'll try to post again with more details about the experience. On a high level, the program likens leadership to a lifelong journey that we take, where we learn to better understand ourselves and others, build alliances of collaboration within our community, identify guides to assist us, and put our character into action via a purposeful strategy. The program does a great job of integrating curriculum for all four types of learning styles (reflective, common sense, interactive and imaginative) with journaling, discussion, presentations, experiential exercises, video tools and group interaction. Although my involvement as a Guide might seem benevolent, I find it to be selfish as well because I end up learning more by teaching than they do by participating.

I received some background information about the eight undergraduates on my team (dubbed the "Lone Star Group") and I had a chance to reach out to them earlier this week. I can't wait to meet everyone on the mountain!