Governance Training for Young Leaders

* You may read the transcript of the video below.

Hi there!

My name is Dr. Ron Berkowsky (but my students call me “Dr. B”), and I’m an Assistant Professor in the Health Sciences Program at California State University Channel Islands. On behalf of the National Volunteer Caregiving Network (NVCN), I want to welcome you to this online training program focused on governance training for young leaders. It is so important for young people like yourself to engage with the community to support the lives of our friends and neighbors, and one way to do that is to work with a non-profit organization like the NVCN. There are many ways to do this work – through volunteering, through advocacy, through serving in a leadership position on an executive or advisory board – and all of these routes have their value. But we also know that this type of work can be intimidating for those who don’t have experience. This is part of the reason we’ve set up this training: to better prepare young people to be leaders in nonprofit organizations focused on volunteer caregiving. We hope the knowledge and skills you pick up through this training may better equip you to serve with a variety of nonprofit opportunities.

This online training program would not be possible without the dedication, support, and leadership of Tammy Glenn, Executive Director of the NVCN, and Kaylin Krawczyk, Director of Membership Services at the NVCN.

I’d also like to extend a warm thank you to the students of my Spring 2022 Senior Capstone class at California State University Channel Islands. The Capstone class in Health Sciences is a culminating course wherein Health Science students engage in a semester-long project, utilizing and building upon the skills they’ve attained through their undergraduate career. While Capstone projects vary from semester to semester and between instructors, it was important to me that my class engage in a project that would benefit the community. Enter Tammy Glenn, who came to me with the idea of having my students spend the semester building a leadership training program for those interested in serving in non-profit organizations. The project was unique in that it forced my students to get out of their comfort zones –given that our students pursue a number of career paths (such as clinical care, or health administration, or public health, or health policy), many expressed how challenging a project like this would be for them since non-profit leadership was not something they felt they were experts in. But over the course of the semester, through research and interviews with non-profit leaders, and with guidance from Tammy Glenn, my students produced the training that you’re currently taking. I could not be more proud of the work that they’ve done, and I’m grateful for the guidance provided by Tammy.

We hope you find this training informative, and we hope you feel better prepared to take on a leadership role and in working with a non-profit like the NVCN!

Dr. Ron Berkowsky
Assistant Professor
California State University, Channel Islands

Dr. Ron Berkowsky’s Health Science Capstone