What Is the Wilberforce Leadership Program?
A two-semester formation experience for college students who want to lead for God's glory and the good of others. You'll start with who you are and who you want to become. You'll finish with tools and experiences to propel you forward for years to come.
Why This Matters
Think about the most exceptional leaders you know. What strikes you about them? Probably not their credentials, but who they are. Their character. Their wisdom. Their perseverance. That's what formation is about.
Leadership is the overflow of formation. What you do flows from who you are. This program isn't about accumulating skills or discovering your one true passion. It's about building toward a life well lived. A life in which you become more fully alive. It's about becoming more fully and truly human, which is to say, more like Jesus.
What Do We Mean by Formation?
Formation is the slow work of becoming a particular kind of person. It isn't just acquiring knowledge or skills, but being shaped by practice, over time, into someone wiser, more honest, more rooted, and more fully alive. It's practical and spiritual work.
Who Are You Becoming?
Our hope is that by the end of the program, students are growing in five core character qualities. These aren't competencies to be achieved, but attributes of a person who is being genuinely formed.
Humble
Rooted
Self-Aware
Called
Engaged
Our Approach to Formation
We will adopt a designer's mindset as our methodology. Instead of approaching your life like it's a puzzle to solve, we will approach it like a design project: a challenge full of possibility with no single right answer. Learning to approach your life like a designer means taking the raw material of your life — your time, your attention, your choices, your stories — and developing the habits and practices to get more meaning out of life.
Why this approach? Because life is like a never-ending prototype. It's always unfolding and we are always learning. You don't have to figure it all out ahead of time. You will grow and change. Life will happen. What we're building here are the muscles that support your efforts to design a meaningful life, no matter what comes.
Ways of Showing Up
At the heart of the WLP's methodology are five design mindsets. These are ways of showing up, ways of orienting yourself to your own life.
Wonder
Availability
Radical Acceptance
Fully Engaged & Calmly Detached
Create Your World
What Does the Year Look Like?
Weekly Themes
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Week 1Story & IdentityWhat story am I living in, and who am I becoming within it?
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Week 2WonderWhat would I notice about my life if I actually paid attention to it?
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Week 3AvailabilityHow do I show up, and what would change if I arrived more open?
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Week 4Radical AcceptanceWhat reality am I resisting, and what becomes possible when I stop?
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Week 5Fully Engaged & Calmly DetachedWhat does it look like to show up fully while releasing what I cannot control?
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Week 6Create Your WorldWhat story am I telling myself, and is it the most truthful one available?
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Week 7Relational IntegrityWhat does it mean to speak the truth in love?
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Week 8Body & PracticesHow does what I repeatedly do with my body shape who I am becoming?
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Week 9IntegrationWhat has this semester been forming in me, and what do I carry forward?
Weekly Themes
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Week 1VocationWhat is my work for, and how does it participate in something larger than me?
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Week 2CallingWhat specifically am I being called to, with these gifts, in this season?
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Week 3AmbitionWhat is driving my pursuit of calling, and is it ordered or disordered?
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Week 4Wayfinding & ChoicesHow do I navigate faithfully and decide well without a complete map?
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Week 5Suffering & FailureWhat is loss forming in me, and what do I do when I caused it?
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Week 6ForgivenessWhat is forgiveness, and what does it cost and give?
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Week 7Power & InfluenceWhat does it mean to lead faithfully, with or without a title?
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Week 8Faithful PresenceWhat does it mean to seek the welfare of the place where I study, live, and work?
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Week 9IntegrationWhat has this semester formed in me, and what do I carry forward?
What You'll Do
Throughout the year, you'll engage in:
- Opening and Closing Retreats
- Weekly meetings
- Formation Groups
- Outside readings and reflections
- Coaching Conversations
- Speaker Breakfasts
- Occasional Group Activities
- Networking Opportunities
Where Formation Happens
Formation does not happen alone. Two distinct relational environments support your growth and development throughout the year.
What About Summer?
Summer is when the inner work of formation finds room to breathe and deepen. Be on the look out throughout the academic year for summer opportunities to consider. Study Center staff stand ready to support you and connect you to people and opportunities that interest you.
What Support Will You Have?
Throughout the program, students have access to a growing set of supports designed to help them discern, connect, and take faithful next steps: