The Leadership Institute is composed of four core committees, in addition to the Executive Board, that provide a diverse set of programs and initiatives for our members and the Harvard community.



The Harvard Leadership Magazine

The Harvard Leadership Magazine (HLM), founded in 2008, engages the leaders of tomorrow by providing students with a broad array of perspectives on leadership, challenging them to reevaluate their own definitions of leadership and empowering them to transform that acquired knowledge into a tangible, positive impact on the world. The magazine is divided into three sections: Features, Around Campus, and Skills, and past editions have featured articles on personalities such as the the CEO and Chairman of P&G, the CEO of Intel, the Dean of the Harvard Business School, the Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a child-soldier turned rap star named Emmanuel Jal. The publication has more than quadrupled its distribution over the past four years, and is quickly becoming one of the most respected and well-known publications on campus.

The Leadership Development Initiative (LDI)

The Leadership Development Initiative (LDI), one of LIHC’s founding committees, carries many of LIHC’s programs that are geared towards Harvard students. Its mission is to both expose students to today’s top leaders and equip them with the tools to practice leadership effectively in their lives on campus and beyond, and does so through various events such as workshops, panels, speaker series, conferences and long-term projects. Examples of past events include speaker events with Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria, CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen, and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, workshops with the Corporate Executive Board, Dale Carnegie, Training and Authentic Leadership Development, panels with leaders in the restaurant and other industries, conferences on social innovation and youth leadership development.

Social Outreach

The Social Outreach (SO) Committee, founded in 2005, works to promote leadership development and service outside the bounds of Harvard. Through the dual application of teaching and mentoring, it focuses on empowering youth with the values, skills and inner confidence to be leaders and accomplish positive change in their schools, communities, and the world. In the past, teaching teams (SO Teaching) have partnered with Citizen Schools, Cambridge Public Schools, and Watertown Public Schools to teach a civic leadership curriculum to middle school students in the Boston area once a week, and the committee is now working to expand the reach of this unique curriculum in the United States and globally. Additionally, mentoring teams through the innovative Teen Change Makers Program (SO TCM) have allowed high school students to apply leadership skills in self-initiated projects to better their local neighborhoods. The Social Outreach Committee also organizes the internationally recognized Youth Lead the Change Program, founded in January 2011, in Boston and countries abroad.

Strategic Development

The Strategic Development (SD) Committee, established in 2009, is the strategy, fundraising, and marketing arm of the Leadership Institute at Harvard College. The Committee leads the organization’s strategic development initiatives, ensures financial stability and institutional growth, and manages social media and marketing for the organization. Responsibilities include fundraising, managing LIHC’s finances, building strategic partnerships with alumni, speakers, and external organizations on and off-campus, raising ad revenues for our magazine, and launching a host of new strategic initiatives to establish steady income for LIHC.  You will receive significant business and marketing experience, exposure to leaders in every realm of public life, and incredible leadership opportunities.