Feature

BANGLADESH Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) held the inaugural ceremony of its second month-long leadership training programme 'Building Bridges through Leadership Training, at the Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management (BIAM) Foundation on 19 June.

Professor A A M S Arefin Siddique, Vice Chancellor at Dhaka University, was present as the Chief Guest. Guest of Honor, Ehsan Ul Fattah, Secretary at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and Special Guest Rokeya Akter Begum, Principal of Viqarun Nisa Noon School and College were also present. The event was attended by students, parents, members of the press, foreign diplomats, and eminent citizens and civil society leaders of Bangladesh.

A total of 30 students were competitively selected from applications from over 92 schools and colleges for this award-winning programme. These 30 of Dhaka's best and brightest will spend a gruelling month attending the after-school leadership training sessions, three hours a day, six days a week. The US Embassy in Dhaka will provide the full tuition through scholarships to the participating students.

BYLC's leadership programme has three components. The first component is what the co-founder of the programme, Shammi S. Quddus of MIT, terms 'building bridges': participants from different educational backgrounds - English, Bengali and Madrassa - will learn to interact and communicate with each other by working in small groups and participating in team building exercises. Over the course of the programme, they will learn to understand different voices and perspectives in society.

The second component focuses on leadership training through workshops on public speaking, lectures on the diagnostic framework of leadership, and training using different tools and techniques to effectively and courageously exercise the act of leadership for the common good.

The final component of the programme consists of community service, where the participants apply their newly learned skills to find solutions to the different problems faced by a local community. This year's community service programme will be implemented in an impoverished neighbourhood in Mirpur, Dhaka.