Torch Leadership Academy

Torch Leadership Academy was founded in 2020 by a group of committed volunteers who have dedicated several hundreds of hours each year since 1995 towards providing young people (ages 14 – 18) with leadership development experiences. Our mission is to develop and empower leaders through meaningful connections and transformative experiences. Our inaugural program was held on July 23 – 26, 2022 at Stockton University in partnership with their Center for Community Engagement & Service Learning and the Rutgers University Student Assembly for 60+ high school students across NJ and 35+ volunteer staff members. These students are selected due to their demonstration of leadership potential and provided this opportunity to learn more about their unique leadership style, how to better communicate with others, how to set SMART goals, approaches for collaborative problem solving, and techniques for empathizing and building rapport with others. We continue to build past participants’ leadership capabilities through a series of Personal Development Days (PDDs), events held between summer conferences that focus on advanced coaching and counseling techniques. From the participants in our PDDs, we invite the most qualified participants to volunteer as staff members at the annual conference as a community service opportunity and way to gain further leadership experience. Our volunteer staff conduct pre and post survey assessments of participants and staff to assess their growth over the course of their involvement in our programming. We expect to demonstrate an ability to significantly improve participants’ understanding of leadership styles, ability to set goals, expand their horizons, speak in public, and improve self confidence. We also seek to shift participants’ views on “leaders” from traditional descriptors such as “strength” and “confidence” to “loving” and “determined”.