With our whole-person approach, we build: The Leader, The Artist & The Entrepreneur
WHAT IS AELA?
The Arts Embassy Leadership Academy (AELA) is a transformative 12-month program operating under the STAND Together and STAND Up pillars of S.T.A.N.D., Inc. AELA is designed to provide leadership, creative, and entrepreneurial training for young creative professionals while serving as a faculty recruitment and professional development initiative for the Arts Embassy Academy, set to launch in Fall 2025.
This program offers a holistic approach to growth, equipping participants with in-depth education in leadership, innovation, and business acumen, while also emphasizing character development, essential life skills, and innovative teaching methodologies.
We will interview creative professionals from the Orlando area who are passionate about becoming leaders and influencers in their industries and dedicated to inspiring the next generation of aspiring creatives. From this pool, 3-7 individuals will be selected to participate in:
6 months of intensive training in leadership, creative practice, and pedagogy.
6 months of on-the-job training through our summer and afterschool programs.
A contractual school year coaching and mentoring our inaugural middle school cohort at the Arts Embassy Academy.
AELA provides a unique opportunity for creative professionals to develop their skills, gain practical experience, and make a lasting impact by shaping the future of education and the arts.
PROGRAM OUTLINE
Our leaders arrive with an exceptionally high level of passion, energy and creative skill. We work alongside them so that they are equipped with the vision, experience and resources to match their creative passion. They graduate renewed and fully prepared to impact their industries and communities.
Here’s how it works!
PARTICIPANT INTERVIEWS/SELECTION/ TRAINING
Our participants are carefully selected to engage in a 12-month training. They proceed through a series of courses to gain practical skills in key leadership, creative, and entrepreneurial areas.
ONSITE COACHING & MENTORSHIP
Each participant becomes a part-time paid member of the creative leadership staff for our 1-week Creative Arts Summer Intensive (C.A.S.I ) and our 8-week Arts Embassy Afterschool Academy.
LEARNING COACH & AEA STAFF
At the end of the 12-month training, each member will graduate from our program and become a lifetime member of the AEA Professional Community and also be offered a 1-year contract as an AEA Learning Coach & Staff member.
CORE VALUES TRAINING
Our participants may not be aware of these values when they enter AELA. But, when they are encouraged to look at the core values intensely and to examine the relevance of excellence, integrity, balance, collaboration, empowerment, and creativity in their personal and professional lives, it helps them to see things from a whole new perspective.
As our skilled trainers take deep dives into each core value, participants begin to see the bigger picture of how the values work cohesively together to support a strong, healthy, and vibrant creative leader. They reexamine their leadership approaches. They begin to envision new structures that they never even knew were possible. And, they come out on the other side reenergized and better equipped to lead, coach, and create businesses built for sustained vitality and success.
EXCELLENCE
Effective leaders and creatives regularly strive to produce with high-quality and consistently perform at a high standard in every area of life
COLLABORATION
Effective leaders and creatives understand the need and benefit of working with others. They are well aware of the rich resources and beauty of what they’re able to produce collectively,
INTEGRITY
Effective leaders and creatives understand that their name and reputation is their brand and living and moving with integrity and character in their personal and professional lives goes further than the level of their talent
EMPOWERMENT
Effective leaders and creatives recognize the importance of coaching and bringing out the best in others.
BALANCE
Effective leaders and creatives understand the importance of living a balanced life, concerned with the development of the whole person.
CREATIVITY
Effective leaders and creatives understand what it means to think outside of the box and without limits at all times. There is always a solution, there is always a way and they can always create a path not yet seen
VISION PORTFOLIO
Innovative Learning Skills
We expect our participants to be highly inspired, motivated, and empowered throughout the course of training. Our goal is for these leaders to become the coaches for a rising generation of creative thinkers, therefore it’s highly important that each coach feels as though they are supported and thriving in both their personal and professional lives. We desire for them to be the creative ambassadors for Arts Embassy Academy.
Throughout each module, the participants will have the opportunity to develop their vision for their lives based on who they are as a leader, artist and entrepreneur. They will be encouraged to carefully examine how their personal and professional lives should coincide.
The Innovative Learning Skills are centered around our six core values and are designed to expand the way our participants think about key aspects of creative leadership such as resources, planning and constant growth. They include skills such as scenario planning or vision-casting, strategic thinking and the development of young creatives.
At the end of the 12-months they will present their vision portfolio that highlights the innovative learning skills they’ve adapted.
