Bates College President Garry W. Jenkins has been selected as a member of the second cohort of the Washington, D.C.-based Aspen Institute’s Aspen-Kern Presidential Leadership Fellowship. The fellowship, offered through the Aspen-Kern Program for Leadership and Character in Higher Education, is designed to support and enhance the leadership of new college presidents. This program emphasizes the ways in which undergraduate education prepares students to be successful, contributing members of society, including developing powers of critical thinking; cultivating the ability to engage in civil, challenging, and creative dialogue; and fostering individual growth and exploration. 

Jenkins, who joined Bates as the college’s ninth president on July 1, 2023, said that this opportunity aligns with Bates’ BOND (Bates Open Network on Dialogue) initiative and other emerging efforts focused on enhancing civil discourse. “Developing the habits of engaged inquiry and effective communication are hallmarks of a liberal arts education—especially a Bates education,” Jenkins said. “The opportunity to work with other college presidents through the Aspen Institute, and to talk together about the promise and purpose of higher education is a true honor.” 

Building on the Aspen Institute’s 75-year history of humanities-based leadership formation, as well as the Kern Family Foundation’s longstanding support of programs dedicated to advancing character education and a better society, the Aspen-Kern Program offers new programming and support. The Presidential Leadership Fellowship includes workshops on leadership, personalized coaching with other college presidents and other executives, and support for on-campus initiatives. It complements existing skills-based support for college presidents within their first three years in office at public and private four-year undergraduate-serving institutions.

The program also provides humanities-informed seminars for individual institutions, practical resources, and thought leadership regarding new ways of conceiving and articulating the purposes of higher education.