About
In 2023, NYU Steinhardt’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion launched the first year of the Empowering Your Inner Leader: First-Year Student Program on Leadership and Community Engagement!
The overarching purpose of this NYU Steinhardt First-Year Student Leadership program is to provide students from underrepresented groups (e.g. BIPOC, LGBTQ+, lower socioeconomic status) with a non-credited, compensated program dedicated to developing students’ inner leadership skills and positive contributions as valued NYU community members. The program operates with a foundation that students’ diverse backgrounds and experiences generate positive leadership qualities valued at NYU Steinhardt.
Program topics include the high school to college transition, leadership development, self-empowerment, educational equity, racial justice, and community building. Students will participate in community service engagement through NYU’s largest and free community service sector, College & Career Lab. The program also encompasses a study-away component.
Components
This program hopes to provide students with a year-long opportunity for:
Community building: space for students of similar and different identities to grow with one another and potentially bolster connections outside of class time
Self-development: provide students from underrepresented groups with a compensated program to learn and develop their inner leadership skills
Community engagement: use built leadership skills to contribute positively to the NYU community with the NYU College & Career Lab (CCL)
Instructor
This program is led by Emily Versoza Liebau, Program Administrator of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Belonging. Emily recently completed her Master's in Higher Education and Student Affairs through the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She received her Bachelor's degree in International Journalism, with a minor in Graphic Design and Asian Pacific American studies from Michigan State University. Emily proudly identifies as a multiracial Filipino American from Metro Detroit.