Company donates $30,000 to leadership institute at Longwood

February 2012

A company led by a Longwood alumnus has donated $30,000 to the SNVC Institute for Leadership and Innovation, based in Longwood’s College of Business and Economics, to implement a leadership development training program in a Virginia elementary school.

The gift from The Choice Inc., a staffing company headquartered in Washington, D.C., whose president and CEO is Drew Hudson, a 1990 graduate, was used to implement The Leader in Me, which is for students in pre-kindergarten through grade six and is based on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Hudson hopes the program will be implemented in a school in Culpeper, his hometown. The gift is part of the SNVC Institute’s campaign to raise $100,000 for The Leader in Me.

“In an era of focus on SOLs, gifted and talented students, and AP and IB programs, it is a pleasure to be a part of a program such as The Leader in Me,” said Hudson, a former president of the Longwood Alumni Association. “We at The Choice were eager to effect change with a younger group of students, and The Leader in Me ties in well to our commitment to develop citizen leaders. Programs such as this don’t get budget priority in these economic times, so we wanted to step up as citizen leaders and fill the gap. I look forward to tracking the long-term effects of the program as we engage young students to harness these great skills and apply them in a purposeful adult life.”

The Leader in Me is officially a “process for schoolwide transformation that is designed to enhance students’ life skills and workforce readiness.”