Blog: Campaign Academy Recap
This past weekend, we were proud to host our second Campaign Academy in Washington, DC, where we brought together 45 leaders from across the country for a weekend of campaign staff training, the ‘New Politics’ way.
It was an incredible weekend. We dove into the inner work that we value so much — the critical process of clarifying one’s own core values and purpose that frequently goes overlooked in our politics today. We featured conversations with expert panelists that gave us a window into campaigns today and the big challenges facing our politics. And we took participants through a day and a half of live fire exercises that gave them a taste of what a campaign is really like.
Our Chief Program Officer, Max Klau, kicked off Friday with a session called Leading with Purpose in which he led participants through an exercise of developing their mission and shadow statements, and figuring out how this applied to their work as values-driven campaign staffers.
Later that evening, seasoned campaign strategists Aisha Woodward, Sarah Longwell, and Anson Kaye joined us for an informative panel where participants were invited to gain further clarity on what their journey ahead may bring as a campaign leader. Our Press Secretary Gabe Ramos moderated the conversation, and participants proved to be highly engaged, posing thoughtful questions to our guests.
Saturday, each vertical was presented with a day of live fires. Participants were given scenarios that they are likely to face while working on a campaign, and were challenged to come up with creative ways to solve each hurdle. Delaware State Senator Tizzy Lockman joined us later in the day and did a fantastic job hosting a Q&A session about her experience running a successful campaign. Sunday we continued live fires, and ended with a simulation of what elections look like when working on a campaign.
NPLA sends a huge thank you to all our servant leaders who spent their weekend with us at Campaign Academy. It always amazes us to see how our participants grow and learn over the course of the weekend