With a $50 million gift from venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife, Ann, through their private family foundation, Rice University is planning an unconventional approach to developing students into leaders.
Retired Brig. Gen. Tom Kolditz, who has headed leadership training at Yale and West Point, will direct the Doerr Institute for New Leaders to maximize the leadership capabilities of all students at Rice.
"We couldn't be more grateful to Rice alumni Ann and John Doerr for this extremely generous support of their alma mater," said Rice President David Leebron. "By donating the largest single gift in the university's history and dedicating it to leadership education, the Doerrs will enable Rice to be the front-runner in empowering students with the skills, training and confidence to make a true difference in the world."
The Doerr Institute for New Leaders will offer each student an innovative combination of proven, timeless techniques together with modern, next-generation practices. The strengths of each student will be assessed and their potential will be developed in a four-year comprehensive, custom-made plan of classroom instruction, hands-on, real-world experience and guidance from personal coaches.
A hallmark of the Doerr Institute is its focus on cultural and global diversity and inclusion. “Tomorrow’s leaders will be more diverse, adapting varied styles to serve diverse teams, tackling challenges in even more diverse communities,” John Doerr said.
Kolditz said leader development at Rice will have three measurable goals: to deliver new knowledge and skills, to accelerate the lessons learned from experience and to increase reflection, self-awareness and leadership identity among students.
"Most of a person's capacity to lead is learned," Kolditz said. Seventy percent of that is gained through experience, not classrooms, so the opportunities to lead teams at Rice are essential to the success of the Doerr Institute, he said. Self-reflection also has a significant impact, so it's important that students are matched with advisers who can coach and direct them to ask thoughtful, analytical questions about their goals and performance, he said.
Leaders will be developed with technology both from existing educational software and apps as well as from the design of original digital tools.
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