Helping Young Rural Leaders to Succeed: Partnering With the Golden Leaf Foundation

Client Profile & Challenge

The Golden LEAF Scholars Leadership Program, which we developed for the Golden LEAF Foundation in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, is designed to provide the scholars with job opportunities in the state’s rural areas and to foster leadership skills in the scholars so they will have the tools necessary to return to their hometowns or other rural communities in the state as future community and business leaders.

Golden LEAF was created in 1999 to manage one-half of North Carolina’s share of funds from the Master Settlement Agreement with tobacco companies. The foundation has provided millions of dollars in scholarships to help students from eligible communities attend the state’s colleges and universities.

The program currently provides leadership training and internship opportunities to 192 freshmen and sophomores who receive Golden LEAF scholarships to attend North Carolina’s public and private colleges and universities. Most of the scholars are the first generation in their families to attend college. The program had 63 sophomores return this year for the second phase of training. Their hometowns are in 52 of 78 counties in the state designated eligible by Golden LEAF because they are rural and tobacco-dependent or economically distressed.

Golden LEAF–Funded Internships

The 8-month leadership program begins with a 3-day leadership conference at our Greensboro campus, attended by the scholars and coaches who mentor them during the entire process. Each scholar finds a summer internship in his/her hometown, paid for by the Golden LEAF-funded program, and completes a community needs assessment. They then come back together to share results and lessons learned at the end of their summer internships. In the program’s inaugural year, 99 freshmen participated, with 93 of them finding internships — many of which were in business, education, government, medicine and service industries.