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The Rancho Bernardo Rotary donated $5,000 to local school
for leadership materials.

The Ken Blanchard Companies and The Rancho Bernardo Rotary teamed up to provided leadership training to over 200 middle school students in the Poway Unified School District.

It all began when Blanchard first donated personal leadership books to one class of 35 eighth graders. The class was such a huge success that now over 500 seventh grade students are reaping the benefits of the Student Situational Self Leadership—a program taught to hundreds of businesses and organizations around the world.

After the initial success of the course, a handful of leadership students applied what they learned in class. They volunteered to make a leadership presentation at one of the local Rotary luncheons and asked for support from these local organizations. Once they heard the student success stories, Rotarians were eager to help support this leadership training for 200 students at the school. The Ken Blanchard Companies significantly reduced the price of each book, and the Rotary made up the difference by donating $5,000 to the purchase price.

“It just takes one visionary person in a school district to get this started,” says Ms. Zingg, co-author of the Blanchard Student Leadership program and teacher at Bernardo Heights. “Schools can elicit financial support from local clubs like the Rotary and other school business partners, or parents. I know that parents often spend the $25 it would cost for a book on movies and dinner in one weekend. These books last a lifetime and students can refer back to them throughout the year for guidance. They can use the books later in high school, college, and when they get their first job. It is essential that students get the tools they need to take the initiative for their own growth and development. We appreciate the support from the Rancho Bernardo Rotary.”

The Community Housing Works Provides Leadership Training to Children by offering Blanchard leadership to the children in their housing communities.

The Community Housing Works is a San Diego non-profit organization that helps people and neighborhoods move up in the world by providing a full range of housing options. They build and own beautiful affordable apartments, provide first-time buyer loans and provide support and training that strengthens communities and help families build wealthier futures.

”Education and training are key strategies for providing upward mobility to families,” said Patti Hamick Christensen, VP Community Building Department. “We offer a variety of services to our residences. One of the successful education training pieces we offer to the families is schoolwork assistance and Blanchard Student Leadership training for their children. Classes are held on site, in the community Learning Centers, where students learn how to take responsibility for their own growth and development, so that they’ll move up and out of affordable housing and onto future success.”

TJX Company Gives Leadership Training to Local High School in Los Angeles to help students who apply for part-time positions in their stores.

When TJX Company (which includes T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and Home Goods) opened a new T.J. Maxx store in the Los Angeles area, they actively searched for a way to give back to their community. “One of the best things we can do for our neighborhoods is to provide education for our youth,” said Jerome Smalls, Vice President of Community Relations. “All of our store managers are required to complete The Ken Blanchard Companies Situational Self Leadership course, so we thought it would be a tremendous gift to provide these skills to the students who were just down the street at West Covina High School. We have many high school age students who apply for part-time positions at our stores. We find that most have never been exposed to the type of leadership skills that are necessary in the workplace. So, we approached the principal of the nearest high school, Jim Combs, and offered to hire Jennifer Zingg, from The Ken Blanchard Companies to provide leadership training to over 100 students.”

One of the local TV stations attended and filmed the end-of-the-year celebration, and asked students what they gained from this experience. Their responses were heartwarming. Many shared stories about how much more focused they were on their studies. Others talked about how they overcame difficult obstacles to pursue a goal. Most of them said that they felt more confident and knew how to communicate better with people.

“I loved working with these students once a month during their elective class period,” said Ms. Zingg. “Students learned appropriate communication skills that will help them to have better conversations with their friends, teachers, family or supervisors. In order for young people to be successful in business and life, they first have to be taught how to lead themselves-and that’s what this program is all about. It teaches them to be self-reliant and how to work with others. More and more business organizations are realizing the importance of providing leadership training to local schools. It’s one of the best investments they can make.”

“This leadership program helps to stabilize neighborhoods, create community leaders, and assist middle and high school students in being more self-reliant. By teaching these students the skills to lead themselves at an early age, we’ll be able to help guide their actions toward a more productive and fulfilling life,” said Ms. Zingg. “We’re making a huge impact on families when we teach students how to be self-directed and work toward successful goals.”

Local Charter School Receives Grant and pays for other schools to be trained in leadership.

The Classical Academy, the premier K-8 Charter School in Escondido, California, received a Dissemination grant to assist other local schools with implementing the Blanchard Student Leadership training for middle and high students. “We’ve been using the Blanchard leadership program for our middle and high school students for years,” said leadership teacher, Dana Moen. “We’ve seen the growth in our students and we wanted to help other schools create an environment where academic success is personalized and achievable for all. This dissemination grant paid for training teachers, parent volunteers, and students from various middle and high schools throughout the San Diego area. It also provided a personal leadership book for over 300 students, 30 teachers and volunteers. Students took their books home with them at the end of the year. They can refer back to them in years to come.”

This leadership program includes one year where students learn concepts such as speaking, listening, goal setting, negotiation, and problem solving skills. Students also learn how to obtain the direction and support they need to focus their skills and motivation levels in relation to a particular task. “My son is now better able to analyze the situation, prioritize, negotiate, or make compromises if necessary, and then work hard to complete the task,” boasts one of the parents.

“Students coming out of the leadership programs are demonstrating increased levels of success academically socially and emotionally, and feel better prepared for high school, college and the workforce,” said Robert Goode, Executive Director.

KPMG, the global network of professional services provides Blanchard leadership training to attract top-notch college students.

KPMG, the global network of professional services, teamed up with The Ken Blanchard Companies to provide weekend leadership training for college students from universities across the U.S. The firm provides audit, tax, and advisory services to 140 countries worldwide. KPMG has 123,000 outstanding professionals working for them, and they have a reputation for attracting the very best employees in the field.

Their mission was to target junior and senior college students who were considered to be at the top of their class, and have the first opportunity to hire these upcoming professionals. The firm invited over 200 students from more than 20 universities around the U.S. to attend the Situational Self Leadership Training held during a summer weekend in Chicago and Hollywood.

Each student received the red carpet treatment—airline tickets, limo rides, luncheons, dinners, and leadership training from The Ken Blanchard Companies. Once students arrived, they formed groups and attended break-out sessions. They had an opportunity to meet with management teams and hear all about the culture, history, and visionary planning of the firm. Students had a great time and learned valuable skills to help with daily decisions that will work for them personally and professionally. “I’ve learned more about myself and how to communicate better with others than I ever thought possible in three days. In fact, I learned more in this week-end leadership training than I learned in an entire course I took last quarter,” said one student.

“I felt like KPMG is willing to invest in my training and education and that’s important to me. I want to be in a place where everyone is encouraged to apply these communication and partnering skills at work. I plan to work for a long time, and I want to enjoy my job,” said another. “At first, I wasn’t excited about giving up a week-end, but I’m glad I did. I felt like I’m leaving with some better understanding about what I need to do to set some realistic goals around my personal life and at work.”

The Blanchard leadership training proved to be a successful investment for the firm. It was reported that KPMG hired over 90% of these highly sought after college students as soon as they graduated.

The Girl Scouts Provide Blanchard Leadership Training to Girls
in Several U.S. States.

The Girl Scouts, through the leadership of the Arizona Cactus Pine Council in Phoenix, AZ., arranged for Ken and Margie Blanchard to speak to the Girl Scout administrators and leaders at the 2009 AGSES Girl Scout Conference at The Arizona Biltmore. After the Blanchard’s spoke, approximately 60 administrators and adult leaders participated in the Situational Self Leadership course. Approximately 15 troupe leaders participated in the two day Blanchard Student Leadership training. The AZ Cactus Pine Council provided leadership training and a stack of leadership books to each troupe leader so that they could begin the leadership training with their group of girls.