YOU Lead – Prizmah’s Signature Program | Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools

Prizmah’s heavily subsidized YOU Lead program provides a research-informed, cohort-based, highly personalized leadership development experience for school professionals who aspire to deepen their leadership capacity in their current role and for roles they will hold in the future. Over nine-months of synchronous and asynchronous learning, with expert coaching and mentoring, you will gain the practical tools and resources you—and your school—need to excel.

Who it is for

YOU Lead is for Jewish day school professionals with leadership responsibilities (not including current heads of school) who want to develop their leadership skills. This includes curriculum coordinators, principals, Judaics directors, directors of teaching and learning, teacher leaders/mentors, admissions directors development directors, directors of student life, grade-level deans, department chairs, directors of educational technology.

Separate cohorts for senior, mid-level, and entry-level leaders help YOU Leaders connect with peers confronting similar challenges. Acceptance into this program is competitive; typically, the program enrolls 30 participants a year.

What it is

YOU Lead combines online modules, quarterly online intensives, cohort building, and 1:1 coaching to support the development of capacities and dispositions, such as emotional intelligence and curiosity, that are central to effective day school leadership. In 2021-22, YOU Lead will continue to address the unique needs amplified by the pandemic, such as equipping YOU Leaders to support the mental health and wellness of themselves, colleagues, and students. Program sessions focus on a range of pragmatic skillsets, including best practices for supervision, how to develop talent, different ways of leading, time management, delivering effective feedback, how to have difficult conversations, and much more.

How it works

The YOU Lead curriculum, informed heavily by Prizmah’s research on school leadership, provides highly personalized support that promotes professional growth and addresses leaders’ most pressing priorities. You will learn about and master the skills that are most important in Jewish day school leadership.

YOU Leaders participate in online learning modules and interact with leading experts in Jewish education. Each module is specifically designed for each cohort.
YOU Leaders have monthly virtual cohort meetings, which focus on dilemmas of practice. Throughout the year, each participant presents a professional challenge they are experiencing, and the group uses a protocol to help the presenter gain new insight into the challenge.
YOU Leaders have twice-a-month confidential one-on-one coaching calls with their mentors to work through their most pressing leadership challenges and questions.
YOU Leaders come together for a half-day online intensive during the year on topics core to the curriculum, including leadership capacities and dispositions, navigating difficult conversations, and setting personal and organizational vision.

Why it is needed

For Jewish day schools to thrive, school leaders need skills, resources, and support to succeed. YOU Lead addresses the growing need in the Jewish day school field for targeted, practical training for emerging day school leaders. Professionals in day schools who show tremendous talent and promise are often quickly promoted into leadership positions. YOU Lead invests in leaders in order to strengthen their leadership capacity and support them in serving their schools and communities now and into the future. Through YOU Lead participants will:

Gain a sense of belonging and connection to peers and colleagues.
Feel they are part of a larger field of Jewish day school leaders.
Experience a greater sense of efficacy in their leadership.
Feel a renewed commitment to Jewish day school leadership.
Feel supported in their work and feel they have someone/colleagues to turn to.
Translate their learning into practice.
Develop awareness of and deepen their leadership presence.
Develop a greater understanding of the diversity in the field of Jewish day schools.
Feel a clear sense of what they can work on to improve in their practice.

Now in its eighth year, YOU Lead has already graduated over 200 educational leaders. See you lead alumni programming here.

YOU Leaders Experience:

YOU Lead has helped me tremendously in my transition into a leadership role. Having a mentor to discuss things with and a cohort of YOU Lead participants to sort through the issues together lets me know that I am not in this work alone. I know that I have a “village” to turn to outside the walls of my school when I need support, advice, or innovative ideas. This program has helped me refine what it means to be a leader. I know I will continually return to the material I have studied and the relationships I have formed in the years ahead.

— Shanna Wilons, Lower School Instructional Leader, Atlanta Jewish Academy

The entire YOU Lead experience has been excellent. Being part of this fantastic cohort B has allowed me to see beyond the lens of a fundraising professional. Understanding the experiences of colleagues from other areas of education fostered a clearer view of the big picture, increasing my understanding of all aspects of education and enabling me to perform at a higher level.

— AMY FINKELSTEIN, Manager of Fundraising, Gestionnaire de levée de fonds, La Fondation des Écoles JPPS-Bialik, Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec

YOU Lead showed me that a leader needs a coach, someone to support the leader’s growth and to be a sounding board for all issues and topics. A good coach makes all the difference - not only in processing specific situations but also enabling the leader to genuinely lead. Leadership at its core is about the identity and growth of the leader. A good coach is able to provide the support and feedback to allow a leader to handle the challenges of leadership and to constantly work to improve him or herself.

— DAVID FAIN, Hillel-Detroit, Rav Beit Hasefer and Dean of Judaic Studies

Applications for the 2022-2023 Program will open soon.

Click Here to Get on the List to Be Notified When Applications Open

Do you know someone who would make a great YOU Leader?

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Cost

YOU Lead is heavily subsidized! Tuition information for the 2021-2022 program year:

Member Price: $4000
Non-member Price: $5000
Tuition is generally covered (at least in part) by the participant’s school. Scholarship funding is available.