Leadership and Culture Across New York City is an immersive, interdisciplinary pre-college program that explores New York City’s five boroughs—the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island—as living classrooms for leadership, creativity, and community identity. Each day is dedicated to one borough, giving students firsthand experience with the distinct cultural histories, social movements, artistic traditions, and local innovations that shape leadership in diverse urban communities. As part of the experience, students enjoy lunches at iconic eateries in each borough, adding a culinary dimension to their exploration of New York’s cultural landscape.
Through guided excursions, interactive workshops, reflective writing, and a culminating creative project, students deepen their understanding of how visionary leaders emerge from multicultural environments and how place, people, and history intersect to shape community life across New York City.
Students will:
- Interpret how history, culture, and community narratives shape leadership across New York City’s five boroughs.
- Demonstrate emerging leadership skills through collaboration, creative problem-solving, and civic exploration.
- Analyze artistic, cultural, and spatial expressions of identity and activism.
- Apply design-thinking and community-engagement strategies to a real or imagined urban challenge.
- Create a final “Borough Blueprint” project synthesizing their learning across the program.
Leadership and Culture Across NYC will run during Session II: Sunday, July 26 – Saturday, August 1, 2026. Apply Today!
Program Director
Dr. Jeff Strickland
Professor & Executive Director, The John Martinson Honors EDGE
stricklandj@montclair.edu
College of Humanities and Social Sciences