With the goal of building leadership capacity within the CTN organization, nine instructors attended the 2018 Catch the Next, Inc. Leadership Fellows Program in San Antonio. These included Palo Alto College instructor, Lisa Trevino; Austin Community College instructors, Olga Eckert (Riverside Campus), Ariel Flores (Riverside Campus), Rosa Alvarez (Riverside Campus), and Pedro Merced (Highland Campus); South Texas College instructors Angelica Cerda (Pecan Campus), Florinda Rodriguez (Pecan Campus), Esmeralda Macias (Mid-Valley Campus), and Anna Alaniz (Starr Campus). The CTN Leadership Fellows Program is a customized learning experience that enables participants to maximize the CTN’s Transformative Education Framework across the state.

“For over a decade, scholars have been debating whether leaders are born or made. The Catch the Next Leadership Fellows Program recognizes that although some individuals have some innate traits that helps them to lead, we agree with the research that leadership can be developed,” commented Catch the Next CEO, Dr. Maria Martha Chavez. “ In these times of transition in higher education the need for leadership is ever more present. Policy and demographic changes have led to a shortage of individuals ready to step up and assume greater responsibility. CTN is intent in   building capacity   to better serve our community, within and outside of higher education.”

The CTN Leadership Fellows Program provides a development track for practitioners across campuses to help them to understand the underpinnings associated with the values of leadership that directly impact the future of higher education. The program helps to ensure that future leaders are ready to take on real-world challenges in higher education and serve the capacity-building needs of the program and the educational institutions across Texas.

During this three-day retreat, college administrators and staff learned CTN’s history and mission, data collection, and participated in leadership development, establishing training sessions and lesson outlines, affirming differences between coaching and mentoring, and knowing the value of being part of a non-profit organization. Participants also became informed of the policies and procedures for CTN site visits and role-played simulated scenarios that involved communicating course logistics within campus site visits. Finally, participants gained knowledge on conducting research and the writing process for successful scholarly publications.