Asia Pacific Leadership Program
The Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) is the center of excellence for leadership education in the Asia Pacific region. The program links advanced and interdisciplinary analysis of emergent regional issues with experiential leadership learning.
Vision
In harmony with the goals of the East-West Center, the overarching vision of the APLP is to support the growth of a peaceful, prosperous, and just Asia Pacific community.
Mission
We will achieve our vision through the development of a diverse, informed, and collaborative community of action comprised of our participants and alumni. We will build this community of action through a shared educational experience that also promotes individual outcomes.
The APLP is about the knowledge, skills, experiences, and supportive community needed to successfully navigate personal and regional change in the 21st century. We aim to empower participants to act on new perspectives and catalyze positive change.
Values
The APLP is proud to be part of a larger team that includes the East-West Center’s researchers, staff, affiliated students, and 57,000 alumni. The APLP has several core values that reflect the East-West Center’s mission and support leadership success. As a program we value:
Inclusiveness: Openness to alternative views, supporting others, and appreciating diversity
Honesty: Maintaining personal integrity and earning the trust of others
Humility: Recognizing one’s own weaknesses and the need to learn
Compassion: Valuing others and a concern for creating social good
Innovation: Creativity, risk taking, and problem solving
Rigor: Attention to outcomes and pursuit of excellence
Who Participates?
The 35 – 40 participants selected each year have strong leadership experience or exhibit high leadership potential. All participants have at least a bachelor’s degree and most have a master’s degree. APLP participants come from virtually all Asia Pacific countries and a tremendous range of professional backgrounds (for example, science, business, development, politics, government, civil society, medicine, religious orders, art, finance, academia, and research). The age of participants ranges from mid-20s to mid-40s, with an average age of 32. Peer learning between participants and alumni is a centerpiece of program design.
Asia Pacific Leadership Program
East-West Center
1601 East-West Road
Honolulu, HI 96848
Phone: 808-944-7744
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.eastwestcenter.org/aplp
What Does the Program Involve?
The APLP is a nine-month program (mid-August to mid-May) that begins with a four-and-a-half-month period spent living and working within a diverse international community at the East-West Center in Honolulu (August to December). During this period, activities include workshops, discussion seminars, outdoor challenges, lectures, simulations, field exercises, independent work, and online activities. Joining the program each year are over 50 world-class guests who deliver specific areas of program content and provide mentorship.
In the program’s second phase (January to May), participants activate and further develop the first term’s learning by engaging in a range of flexible, customized activities. These activities include: continuing or new employment, graduate coursework at the University of Hawai‘i, applied leadership projects, or extended field studies in Asia or the Pacific. In all cases, the program continues through online and/or face-to-face meetings. A capstone reunion is held at graduation in Honolulu in May.
Program Learning Outcomes
As a primary individual outcome of the program, participants will come to a greater understanding of the following three questions:
• What’s going on? (emerging issues in the Asia Pacific region)
• What types of leadership are required? (given issues and contexts)
• Where do I fit? (navigating change)
Through participation in the APLP, participants will:
• Energize and refine individual visions and capacities
• Increase awareness of personal leadership strengths and weaknesses
• Forge deeper intercultural communication skills and join a lifelong learning community
• Grasp and be able to communicate implications of regional and global trends
• Develop enhanced abilities to navigate regional and personal change
The APLP provides the time, tools, contacts, and knowledge needed to successfully navigate personal and regional change.
APLP Benchmarks of Success
In twelve years, the APLP has become the premier leadership program in the region and a signature program of the East-West Center. Its 432 alumni, who come from 53 countries, increasingly occupy key positions within the United States and numerous Asia Pacific nations. Alumni also stay in close contact with the program; last year, over 65 percent reunited with program staff.
We judge our success on how participants come to envision regional trends and understand their place within these trends and on how participants develop leadership capacity, plan for future success, and carry out actions needed to achieve this success.
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