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CFL Lunch & Lead: Paving the Way for Politicians
From Center for Leadership Director Kate Parker-Burgard:
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Patti Russo’s journey has always been centered on listening to her heart and being true to herself. Her vocational aspirations started when she wanted to be a nun and then a nurse, but once she was introduced to Gloria Steinham and feminism, she knew what she really needed to do. She got swept up in the political world and while it was apparent to her that she didn’t want to run for office, she was captivated by that world. In the early 1990s, she helped establish the Women’s Campaign School at Yale, where women from around the world have come for over 25 years to gain the skills and confidence they need to run for office.
Sharing stories, many of them amusing, about women who were either ready or nowhere near ready to run for office, Patti Russo engaged a full room of students as she spoke about her experiences training political candidates. She noted that women need to “have a strong sense of themselves and know that they are enough,” which is why the work was initially focused on women. As the program has grown, though, they have moved away from the binary gender model and now call it The Campaign School at Yale (a nonpartisan, issue-neutral leadership program for political candidates), expanding its reach to be more inclusive.
Chris Walsh ‘20 said that he found Ms. Russo’s story of “how she became interested in politics fascinating” and “especially enjoyed hearing about how she came to intern for Bella Abzug and the lessons that experience taught her.”
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 40 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Leading with Humanity curriculum builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
