Richard J. Henley and Susan L. Davis Dean Andrew Rich of the Colin Powell School with Richard Stengel, and the UNSSC's Simona Costanzo Sow and Jafar Javan at the MOU signing ceremony on Sept. 19.
The City College of New York and the United Nations System Staff College have agreed to partner on the Nelson Mandela Project for Social Change, a pioneering initiative aimed at bridging social and political divides by developing new generations of leaders across the globe. The agreement is a key component of a memorandum of understanding signed by President Vince Boudreau, Richard J. Henley and Susan L. Davis Dean Andrew Rich of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, and UNSSC Director Jafar Javan.
The MOU envisions collaboration between the two institutions on joint research projects, the sharing of knowledge and expertise, and designing globally focused training and learning activities around leadership, as well as leadership development programs, internships, academic exchanges and public forums. The Nelson Mandela Project for Social Change is also being created in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, a non-profit that is the primary custodian of Mandela’s name and legacy. A member of the Foundation will be on the Project’s advisory board.
“With the world in desperate need of good leadership,” said Foundation Chief Executive Mbongiseni Buthelezi, “this project promises to offer a vital and accessible resource.”
UNSSC inaugurated the Nelson Mandela initiative earlier this year in Turin, Italy, bringing together five founding academic partners: the American University of Beirut; Universidad Austral in Argentina: IE University in Segovia, Spain; the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore; and the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
The philosophy of the Nelson Mandela Project for Social Change is anchored in Nelson Mandela’s fundamental leadership insights: promoting a culture of values-based and adaptive leadership, resilience, and empathy, and reflecting a determination to create a genuine and safe dialogue space to foster social change.
At CCNY, the project will be based in the Colin Powell School and led by Richard Stengel, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs during the Obama Administration, and a former editor of TIME magazine. In the 1990s, he collaborated with Mandela on the South African’s bestselling autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. That experience was the basis for Stengel's New York Times bestseller, "Mandela's Way." The many hours of taped interviews from that time were the foundation of Stengel’s award-winning 10-part audiobook, “Mandela: The Lost Tapes.”
“Together with our academic partners we want to build a cohort of change makers and provide a learning platform for social change,” said Javan, adding that the project was born out of a visit to the University of Cape Town in 2023 to reflect jointly on the need to bridge social and political divides in a world increasingly affected by polarization. “Through the initiative we will provide spaces for dialogue and consensus building to foster greater participation, which is so much needed for good governance and thriving democracies in light of the global challenges facing humanity today.”
“Through the initiative and its Global Academy for Social Change, we will provide access to new approaches and forge networks among likeminded policy makers, development practitioners and young people engaged in initiatives toward social change,” said Simona Costanzo Sow, UNSSC’s chief of academic partnerships. “The Academy will combine leadership dialogues and substantive inputs with interactive workshops and competency labs to combine theory, practice and networking.”
“Social change is at the heart of CCNY’s mission, and Nelson Mandela was among the most effective leaders for social change of the last century,” said President Boudreau. “We are pleased to be the institutional anchor in the United States for this important partnership with the UN System Staff College. It is particularly fitting, as CCNY was among Nelson Mandela’s first stops during his inaugural trip to the United States in 1990.”
“Nelson Mandela was a transformational figure, and this project represents an extraordinary opportunity to build on his legacy by creating new global opportunities at CCNY that include teaching, research, program building, and leadership development,” said Dean Rich. “It is privilege to work with Jafar Javan and his colleagues at the UN System Staff College on this initiative, and we are thrilled to have Rick Stengel’s leadership at the Colin Powell School.”
“Madiba would have loved this idea of creating a new generation of young global leaders who can address intractable problems in new and innovative ways,” said Stengel. “City College and the Colin Powell School are the perfect place to do this in the United States. Producing effective leaders for positive social change is one of the great challenges of our time, and I’m honored and humbled to lead this effort inspired by Mandela's own heroic journey."
About the United Nations System Staff College
Since its inception in 2002, the UN System Staff College has continuously adapted to respond to the learning, training and knowledge management needs of UN staff and relevant partners. Established as an inter-agency learning institution, UNSSC has become a strategic partner to a wide network of stakeholders across the globe. Each year UNSSC offers over 260 programmes to over 84,000 professionals. Whether online, face-to-face, or a combination of both, the Staff College’s learning solutions deliver high-quality learning experiences that support professionals along their learning journeys.
About the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership
Established in April 2013, the Colin Powell School is home to the social science departments at CCNY as well as the core leadership development and public service programs of the College. With almost 4,000 students, and graduating the most CCNY students annually, the Colin Powell School mission is to transform the nation’s most diverse student body into tomorrow’s global leaders. Half of our students are immigrants; most come from lower income backgrounds. More than seventy percent are first-generation college students, and eighty percent are people of color. The Colin Powell School and City College remain among the most effective engines of economic and social mobility in the United States. The School is led by a faculty dedicated to the highest standards of research and to the university’s democratic and public obligations. Read more about the Colin Powell School.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Syd Steinhardt
212-650-7875
ssteinhardt1@ccny.cuny.edu