Mission, Values, and Structure
Who We Are:
The Leadership Institute at Harvard College (LIHC) is a student organization devoted to fostering the awareness, skills, and values of leadership among Harvard undergraduates. LIHC aims to inspire and empower students to fulfill their leadership potential at Harvard, in their communities and in their world.
What is “Leadership”?
The Leadership Institute at Harvard College (LIHC) defines ‘leadership’ as the skill of motivating, guiding, and empowering a team towards a socially responsible vision.
What We Do:
LIHC provides and promotes leadership development opportunities in 4 specific programs. The Leadership Development Initiative hosts skill-building workshops, The Presidents Forum builds channels for collaboration between student leaders, the Social Outreach teaches leadership and life skills to public middle school students, and the Harvard Undergraduate Leadership Magazine is an annual publication by LIHC that showcases leadership lessons, interviews with students and distinguished professionals, as well a directory of leadership resources on campus, and External Relations provides strategic and financial support to initiatives in each committee. To learn more about our programs, please check out the Programs page.
LIHC Values:
Below are the values we aspire to live by and sustain.
Our Culture:
LIHC is unique in the way it recruits members, designs its work, and goes about achieving its mission. Our culture is defined by the following:
Passion. What is common about LIHC members is our passion to become better leaders and provide opportunities for others to develop their own leadership skills and qualities. This passion is what drives us to be part of LIHC, and to go above and beyond to achieve out mission.
Team players. Thee is a tremendous emphasis on teamwork. Our work is designed in a way that we all work in teams, and a collaborative spirit is what makes LIHC successful at what it does. There is a high level of interdependency in each committee and in all of our activities.
Initiative. LIHC is a fast-growing organization, and it continues to evolve because of the members who come up with big ideas, get the necessary support from their peers and LIHC resources, and work diligently to make them happen. New initiatives are what LIHC thrives upon.
Commitment. LIHC members commit their time and effort to working towards achieving our mission and building the organization.
Community. The people in LIHC are nice, caring, and fun people to work with! We are all invested in making LIHC a community of individuals who learn from each other, enjoy working together, and carry out our tasks with good humor.
Our Organization:
LIHC is entirely student run and has an organizational structure similar to many on-campus groups. We have a president and vice presidents who oversee the full organization; each committee has a chair who takes overall responsibility for that committee and its contribution in achieving the LIHC mission. The president, vice presidents, and committee chairs all serve on the LIHC Executive Board. Members join one of the five committees and have the ability to get involved with cross-committee initiatives. LIHC also has a Board of Advisors, comprised of selected graduate students from the Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard Graduate School of Education. They serve as personal mentors to LIHC members, and provide strategic support to the LIHC Executive Board.