Thank you for letting us know that you cannot attend the Leadership Institute's "Free Lunch Panel" Series on February 24. If you have any questions, please contact Tyler Foote by email or at 703-247-2000.

Thank you for letting us know that can attend the Leadership Institute's "Free Lunch Panel" Series on February 24. If you have any questions, please contact Tyler Foote by email or at 703-247-2000.

Twenty-five students attended the Public Speaking Workshop on December 18, 2009 at the Leadership Institute. During the day-long workshop, distinguished faculty member Dr. John Shosky instructed students on how to organize, build, and deliver an effective speech. This workshop wraps up the 2009 class schedule in the Leadership Institute's Arlington facility. To learn more about future Public Speaking Workshops and all of the Leadership Institute's Communications Training programs, please click here.>

On the weekend of December 12-13, the Leadership Institute held its final Youth Leadership School (YLS) of 2009 in Laramie, Wyoming. This marks the end of another record-breaking year for the YLS Department. Over 1,000 students were trained, making 2009 just the second year in LI history that number of youth activists have been trained to campaign for the candidate or cause of their choice.The YLS Department is currently putting together the 2010 schedule. To get more information or request a school in your area, contact Kent Strang at kstrang@limail.us or call 1-800-827-LEAD.>

National University of La Jolla, CA is proud to announce a limited number of scholarships for three online, undergraduate courses that focus on free-market economics and the philosophical foundations of capitalism. These scholarships are being funded by a grant from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. The scholarships cover the full tuition for the courses plus the application fee to NU. These courses can be taken from anywhere in the world, as long as one has access to the internet. They incorporate live chat sessions in which the professor and students interact in a virtual classroom, much as they would in a traditional classroom. For descriptions of these courses, see the following websites: ECO 401 – Market Process Economics I: http://www.nu.edu/OurPrograms/SchoolOfBusinessAndManagement/ManagementAndMarketing/Courses/ECO401Syllabus.html ECO 402 – Market Process Economics II: http://www.nu.edu/OurPrograms/SchoolOfBusinessAndManagement/ManagementAndMarketing/Courses/ECO402Syllabus.html ECO 430 – Economics and Philosophy: http://www.nu.edu/OurPrograms/SchoolOfBusinessAndManagement/ManagementAndMarketing/Courses/ECO430Syllabus.html For more information on the scholarships, please email Brian Simpson at bsimpson@nu.edu. >

Through the week of December 7-11, 2009, the Leadership Institute trained over 110 future campaign staffers, managers, and candidates during a record-breaking Campaign Manager School. The students represented all election levels - from local grassroots campaigns to state-wide congressional campaigns. To register for the February 2010 Campaign Manager school click here. >

Eighty-two students were trained on December 5-6, 2009 at the Leadership Institute's flagship Youth Leadership School (YLS). It was the largest December YLS in the Institute's 30-year history. Students representing Young Americans for Freedom, Youth for Western Civilization, Young America's Foundation, College Republicans, Generation Joshua, and Young Americans for Liberty attended the two-day intensive training designed to teach young people to organize large numbers of conservative students. The YLS division will wrap up 2009 in Laramie, WY this weekend (December 12-13). This school will mark the second consecutive year the YLS has trained 1000 students in a year (only the second time in LI history).>

In an interview conducted in her Capitol Hill office on December 9, 2009, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann talked candidly about the Leadership Institute and the good the organization has done in its effort to recruit and train conservatives. “It [the Institute] reaches down to young people…[who]…have everything against them. The Leadership Institute tries to train kids to see that there is another view, another side of the story—called reality. [LI] also tries to equip them…to understand the times and know what to do—how to take action. They do both of those very well.”>

On December 8, 2009, The Leadership Institute trained over 50 students at the Internet Blogging Workshop, which provides students with practical tips on setting up and maintaining a blog. Students learned the nuts and bolts of blogging as well as how to drive traffic to their blog. LI offers a variety of Internet trainings to keep up with the ever changing technological trends. Click here for more information on LI's Internet trainings.>

In a December 2, 2009 article written by Rachel Motte for The Evangelical Outpost, Morton Blackwell is quoted on the need for both ideas and action within the conservative movement. In a speech he delivered more than twenty years ago, Morton told his audience of young conservatives, "The prideful conservative intellectual who avoids association with less elegant men of action may doom his cause… In our day we need still more conservatives who are first philosophically sound and then technologically proficient and movement oriented. We must teach young intellectuals that a flattering and seductive talisman which they do not fully understand will not guarantee them success…. Good ideas have desirable consequences only if we act intelligently for them.”To view the entire article, please visit http://evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/2009/12/rebels-without-a-cause-conservatisms-big-divide.html.>

It's not too late to register for the Leadership Institute's final Campaign Manager School of 2009. Join the one hundred other registrants on December 7-11 and learn how to organize and run a winning campaign. Topics covered will include:Campaign plansCampaign strategiesTargeting and identifying votersDeveloping your messageFundraisingAnd much moreBe a part of America's best week of campaign training and register for the Campaign Manager School today! >

The Leadership Institute is honored to present Virginia House Delegate L. Scott Lingamfelter as its December Wednesday Wake-up Club Breakfast featured speaker. He will address the state of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the state of the nation, and the challenges conservatives face today.Delegate Lingamfelter was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2001 representing Prince William and Fauquier Counties. An adherent to the Founder's vision of constitutional and conservative government, Delegate Lingamfelter is a voice for both social and fiscal conservatism in the General Assembly.Delegate Lingamfelter is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Education Committee, and Militia-Police and Public Safety Committee, where he has distinguished himself as a clear-headed spokesman for low taxes, education reform, and public safety, including the right to keep and bear arms.Just $15 per person includes a great buffet breakfast. Bring a friend! Breakfast is served at 7:30 a.m. and the program begins at 8:00 a.m. at the Leadership Institute, located just 100 yards from the Clarendon Metro Station on the Orange Line. Space is limited, so please call Joanne Bogan at (703) 247-2000 ext. 503 if you plan to attend. Or register online at www.LeadershipInstitute.org/breakfast.>

Internet technology has opened new avenues for conservative victory. The Leadership Institute's Internet Blogging Workshop on December 8th offers attendees practical and useful information on the nuts and bolts of blogging.Register for this one evening workshop and learn from Internet experts how best to market your conservative cause on your personal, organization's, or campaign's blog. We'll teach you how to get started and how to succeed. After attending the workshop you will know how to:• Start a blog and generate quality content • Drive site traffic, build an online community, and activate readers • Help other bloggers help you • Optimize the number of visitors to your site using search engines.For more information on this or any of our Internet trainings, please contact Amanda Dehn at 703-247-2000 >

On Thursday, November 12, 2009, the Leadership Institute held a Gala in honor of President Morton Blackwell's 70th Birthday and LI's 30th Anniversary. Over 400 guests were in attendance showing their support for LI, including Indiana Congressman Mike Pence and Virginia Attorney General Elect Ken Cuccinelli. Executive Director of the Senate Republican Steering Committee, Ed Corrigan, was the Master of Ceremonies. A highlight of the evening was the honoring of young activists from across the country who have had an impact on the conservative movement using the training they received from the Leadership Institute.The evening was a roaring success and everyone at LI would like to thank the Gala sponsors who made the evening possible.>

The Leadership Institute welcomed over 40 students to its headquarters in Arlington, VA on November 17-18, 2009 for the Writing Workshop. Veterans of journalism and communications in the conservative movement offered the students practical tips on how to improve their writing skills. The training covered essential topics for one to succeed in the field, such as how to write op-eds and press releases.>

$75,000, $50,000 and $25,000 JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIPS OFFERED BY THE PHILLIPS FOUNDATION FOR 2010Applications Available for Print and Online Journalists Washington, DC, November 16, 2009 -- The Phillips Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2010 Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship Program. Print and online journalists with less than 10 years of professional experience are eligible. The Foundation created this program to provide fellowships for projects by journalists who share its mission to advance constitutional principles, a democratic society and a vibrant free enterprise system. The Phillips Foundation awards $75,000 and $50,000 full-time fellowships and $25,000 part-time fellowships to undertake and complete a one-year project of the applicant's choosing focusing on journalism supportive of American culture and a free society. In addition, the Foundation offers separate yearlong fellowships on the environment, on the benefits of free-market competition, and on law enforcement. There are also Alumni Fund Fellowships funded by donations from current and former Phillips Fellows. Alumni Fund Fellowship winners write one magazine-length article on their topic. The Foundation awarded 10 fellowships in 2009: Full-time FellowshipsSheryl Blunt for “The Assault on School Choice: How Teachers Unions' Opposition to Vouchers is Impacting America's Most Vulnerable School Children” Michael Dougherty for “Blowup: The Contradictions of the Economic Crisis” Gary Emerling for “Police State or Probable Cause: The Employment, Effectiveness and Legal Validity of Law Enforcement Checkpoints in the United States” Evan Hill for “Sanctuary: How the Fate of One Troubled Policy is Shaping the Debate on Immigration.” Part-time FellowshipsReilly Capps for “The Continental Divide: How the West's Geography Carves the Political and Cultural Future of America – or How the Nanny State Took over the Wild West” James Kirchick for “Transnational Progressivism and the Threat to America” Christian Lowe for “Answering the Call: Why Some in ‘Generation Y' Abandon a Life of Comfort and Prosperity to Risk Everything and Fight America's Wars” Stephen Morse for “My Two Census” which examines why the 2010 census could become the most controversial data-gathering process in history. Alumni Fund FellowshipsKatherine Truesdell for “Caught in the Web: an Exploration of the Left's Power Online and What It Means for the Right” Robert VerBruggen for “Race and the American Academy,” which explores how American universities study race and racism, how they handle racial issues on campus and how these trends affect the broader society.The Foundation is looking for journalism projects which are both original and publishable. The winners will deliver four installments with the potential to be published sequentially in a periodical or as a book. Applications must be postmarked by February 22, 2010. The winners will be announced next May at an awards dinner at the National Press Club in Washington. The starting date for the fellowships is September 1, 2010. Applicants must be citizens of the United States. For an application, visit us here, or contact: The Phillips Foundation, 1 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 620, Washington, DC 20001, Attention: John Farley. Phone: 202-250-3887, ext. 609. E-mail.>

The Leadership Institute participated with the Family Research Council's first-ever “New England Education and Training Summit” held in Manchester, New Hampshire on Saturday, Nov 14, 2009. LI provided an Internet Activist Workshop training nearly a hundred activists how to utilize online new media applications such as social networking, blogging, and online video activism. The attendees were primarily pro-family activists and will utilize the training to become better online activists.>

A 2008 graduate of the Youth Leadership School (YLS), Carla Shutrop was recently elected to her local school board in Minnesota with the highest number of votes of all candidates. She will serve a four-year term on the Shakopee School Board starting in January. But what does YLS have to do with it?The Youth Leadership School is the Leadership Institute's flagship school, nicknamed “the boot camp of politics.” This training provides students with effective techniques to organize and lead mass-based youth efforts for candidates and causes of your choice.The Youth Leadership School has launched more successful political careers than any other Leadership Institute training program.Carla said,I used the knowledge and training from my experience with LI and other trainings I have been to in my campaign. I think what made the most positive impact for me was getting out and pounding the pavement, meeting people one on one. I am honored to have been giving this opportunity and I look forward to the challenges ahead.Topics covered in the YLS include:•Building an effective student organization•Getting out the vote•Earned media (favorable publicity)•Developing a public relations strategy•Launching a successful career in politicsThis school is held on college campuses across the country and at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia.Apply to a YLS here!>

Launched in January 2009, the Sound Money Project at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation is engaging experts in the task of developing and refining a set of “sound money” principles with relevance to the world's current challenges. The Project also intends to mobilize think tanks and scholars to be more active in promoting public policies that are consistent with these principles.One way Atlas plans to mobilize these groups is through the Sound Money Essay Contest. The deadline for submission is November 24th, 2009, with a top prize of $5,000. To be eligible to win a prize within the Sound Money Essay Contest, contestants must be a legal resident of the U.S. or engaged as a full-time student in the U.S. Contestants must also be no more than 35 years old on the date of the contest deadline. >

On October 29-30, 2009, twenty-seven students attended a Youth Leadership School in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Many of the attendees were homeschoolers learning to fight for their causes and candidates. The students plan to use their Leadership Institute training to organize a conservative youth group in the Pinehurst area.>