Nearly 50 undergraduate women will gather next week for the Women’s Leadership Institute to focus on the unique challenges they face as leaders on and off campus.

The institute is an annual event organized by the Women for FSU and the Center for Leadership & Social Change.

Rooted in the belief that leadership is learned through experience, education and reflection, the institute focuses on women’s leadership development, creates a dynamic learning environment and invites FSU women students to learn with and from FSU women faculty, staff and alumni.

The Women’s Leadership Institute will take place OCT. 27-29 on Florida State University's campus.

Beatriz Malagon, a former participant who is helping to organize this year’s event, originally had reservations about her abilities as a leader but the institute helped change that.

“After a transformative weekend, I came out inspired by the wisdom that was shared, the love that was felt and the empowering notion of being unapologetically yourself,” Malagon said.

The institute’s curriculum focuses on:

● Naming and understanding the current campus, community, state, national and global contexts that influence our individual and intersecting identities and impact our experience as women.

● Awareness and recognition of individual and systemic bias and oppression that can keep women out of leadership roles and question their capacity to lead

● Acknowledging and celebrating women’s capacity to change this system and lead the change they wish to see in the world.

The event is supported by the Levine/Tully Family Fund.

— Charlie Andelman