Emerging Leaders Shows Students What a Lifetime of Arts Involvement Can Be

When Andrea King, Blumenthal’s new Preprofessional Programs Manager was growing up in a small town in South Carolina, she got involved in her local community theater and loved it. Like many theater kids, she became familiar with traditional roles in the theater — such as acting, directing, stage management and teaching — and has pursued them in various ways throughout her career.

She has no regrets about her path, but “if I had had a program like Emerging Leaders growing up… that would have changed the trajectory of my life,” she says.

“It would have just opened my eyes to the other possibilities out there.”

Now, King is overseeing Blumenthal’s innovative new program, which does just that: it shows young people what a lifetime of arts appreciation and involvement can look like.

This school year, 55 high school juniors and seniors are participating in Emerging Leaders. (The initiative replaces the former Junior Ambassadors program.) The new program involves multiple components, from attending sessions with local experts who have charted a variety of paths inspired by the arts, to building leadership and communication skills through committee work, to gaining hands-on experience volunteering at the theater.

Hearing directly from area professionals

Throughout the year, students participate in monthly seminars highlighting professionals with unique connections to the arts. The October session, for example, focused on the role of boards in the not-for-profit arts world. The panel featured several Blumenthal Board of Trustees and Matthews Playhouse board members.

It’s a way to jump start thinking that a love of the arts doesn’t have to point to a specific career, King says. “Possibly if you're on a board, you have a life outside of arts and that you're doing this as part of your passion and not part of your income,” she adds.

Other upcoming sessions are still in the works but will feature speakers on a wide range of topics:

• Careers in arts management, led by members of Blumenthal’s senior staff.
• Behind-the-scenes roles like lighting design, prop design and projection.
• Arts entrepreneurs, that is folks who started as performers and have gone on to create other businesses.
• And professionals who have merged a passion for arts with careers in healthcare.

“They're having such a good time with this already,” King says of the students. “They came into the first seminar… all of them asking insightful questions. They were a little bit nervous, but they had so much energy.”

Hands-on learning through committees

Students are building valuable skills through the program, too, by taking leading roles in managing their own Emerging Leaders curriculum and experience. They serve on one of five committees, each with different responsibilities and opportunities to learn:

• Community Connections ~ Students reach out and welcome guest speakers for monthly seminars. They research speakers and come up with questions to guide the sessions.
• Social Networking ~ This committee creates and runs team-building games for the cohort.
• Event Planning ~ Participants plan the group’s mid-year social and end of year banquet.
• Yearbook Planning ~ Students will create a physical commemorative book with photos and quotes featuring this year’s cohort. The book will not only be a keepsake for participants, it will also serve as a tool to market the program to the public and potential donors.
• Video Retrospective ~ This group will hone its interviewing and editing skills by creating video highlights of the Emerging Leaders program.

The skills students will sharpen through these experiences are wide-ranging, King says, whether participants are learning to draft professional emails, how to transition large groups from one activity to another, developing a budget and negotiating with local businesses, or practicing interview and editing techniques.

All of them have real-world applications within and outside the arts world. That’s an important factor, too. King wants students to know that the skills gained through the arts are transferable to other realms as well.

“Leadership, communication, adaptability, flexibility. You gain all of those in the arts,” she says. “So, as a theater kid, those are the things that you don't even realize you're learning… A background in arts has helped me make it in other industries, whether I wanted to or not…

“Like my attention to detail, my ability to communicate with different types of people, my ability to not judge someone, but kind of wonder, ‘Okay, well, what is your backstory?’ Like you would for a character... you don't judge them, you're just curious as to who they are. So I think that arts can really give you that perspective, which can be very beneficial no matter which path you take.”

Hands on volunteering at the theater

Emerging Leaders also serve as volunteer ushers at Blumenthal’s theaters. At first, ushering can be intimidating for some students, King says, since they are interacting with hundreds of adults and serving as authority figures, possibly for the first time.

To help them prepare, students received safety and procedural training from front of house staff at the theater, whom they volunteer alongside, too. There are also ten returning students from last year’s JA program, who have helped show them the ropes.

Another bonus: students got to experience a full behind-the-scenes look at “Wicked” as part of the program!

Getting to know students’ strengths and opportunities for growth

King says this year, for the first time, students came in person for a group-styled interview as part of their application process. Rather than a typical Q and A session, students participated in team building exercises while Blumenthal staff from the education and front of house departments watched how they proceeded.

“We observed who exhibited strong interpersonal skills, who had positive attitudes, who were stepping up as leaders,” King says.

Then they intentionally chose a mix of people — some who already had those skills and others who could really benefit from gaining them.

For King, one skill requirement stood out above all the others: a positive attitude.

It’s perhaps the most essential and transferable skill of all and something Emerging Leaders, as a rule, have aplenty.

Want to find out more about applying for next year’s group of Emerging Leaders? Click here for more details.