The University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences is leading a unique project in which 50 undergraduate students are co-creators of an "Intercultural Leadership Toolkit for the Information Age.” When completed the Toolkit will provide leadership development to students, faculty and professionals, so they can be effective leaders in an increasingly international and multicultural world community.

Symposium

The initial event of the toolkit is a symposium (See Symposium Agenda) on October 30-31, held in conjunction with the University of Puerto Rico’s Escuela Graduada de Ciencias y Tecnologías de la Información, and will be held in UT 's Carolyn Brown University Center.

The symposium brings together celebrated Latino librarian, Jose Aponte,
faculty from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and faculty and
administrators from a variety of disciplines across UT. Jose Aponte’s
keynote addresses components of intercultural leadership, how leadership is
changing in the Information Age and how to nurture leadership among
educators and students. The university community is invited to attend
Aponte’s address on October 30 at 9:00 a.m. in the UT University Center
Shiloh Room.

The symposium will also include the participation of 50 UT undergraduate
students who will begin their work as co-creators by sharing their insights
and perceptions of international and intercultural experiences. The
university community is invited to attend the plenary session preceding the
undergraduate co-creation sessions from 1-2 p.m. on October 31 in the Shiloh
Room.

The symposium is supported by and builds upon the University of
Tennessee’s Ready for the World initiative.

Undergraduate students interested in leadership and intercultural issues should visit the flier invitation (pdf) and consider applying to participate.

The Intercultural Leadership Toolkit

The Intercultural Leadership Toolkit will be a comprehensive guidebook
for leaders, professionals, and students across disciplines. The Toolkit’s
components include terminology/definitions, taxonomy, resources, awareness
building strategies, and self-assessment tools for mapping intercultural
knowledge, skills, and attitudes at the individual, organizational, and
institutional levels.

The purpose of the Toolkit is to achieve a focused awareness of, and
sensitivity to, international and intercultural differences, and to provide
students with the leadership and intercultural skills to function
competently in the contemporary global society.

SIS launched a partnership for cross-cultural leadership with the UPR's Graduate School of Information Sciences and Technologies on August 28, 2006.