Radcliffe to Expand Mid-Career 'Intellectual Renewal' Program for Leaders

Radcliffe College plans to expand its fledgling "Intellectual Renewal" seminars for mid-career professionals, officials will announce today.

The four-day weekend seminars give women--and some men--in leadership positions the chance to discuss texts by authors including Plato, Margaret Mead, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Jill Ker Conway. The seminars, which explore leadership questions, take place in both large sessions and smaller group exercises.

"Participants take themes and ideas from the classics and apply them to today's world," said Radcliffe spokesperson Michael A. Armini.

The program has been in place for a year in a pilot phase, and has met three times in Massachusetts.

Radcliffe will expand the program with three more sessions this year and take it on the road, holding seminars not only in the Bay State, but also in Scarborough, Maine and Santa Fe, N.M.

Armini said demand for the program was considerable, fueled entirely by word-of-mouth.

"The response from the participants has been overwhelmingly positive," Armini said, adding that Radcliffe has agreed to host a May reunion at the request of past participants.

Thus far, about 45 people have been through the program, the majority of whom were female, although it is not limited to women alone.

With a push to market the program, the pitch will be made to "leaders" who are both men and women, Armini said.

"Learning across the lifespan has been a key part of Radcliffe's mission for many years," Armini said, adding that the program did not represent a move away from undergraduate concerns.

The Intellectual Renewal weekends are moderated by Barbara Hill, former president of Sweet Briar College and a senior fellow at the American Council on Education in the Center for Leadership Development in Washington, DC.

The seminars also involve guest moderators, such as columnist Ellen Goodman, former member of Congress Elizabeth Holtzman and former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger--the first woman to secure the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York City.

At the Scarborough session this June, Laura Liswood, president and CEO of the American Society for Training and Development, will be the guest moderator.

The program costs between $1,500 to $1,700, and Radcliffe offers sliding scale tuition options for those who cannot afford the fees.

The college has also recently unveiled several other programs for mid-career professionals, including a week-long seminar on intellectual renewal with fellows at the college's Bunting Institute.

"Radcliffe continues to launch innovative programs and people continue to take advantage of them," Armini said.