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- BLI announces a new Access Opportunity
- Barger Leadership Institute is moving!
- BLI Announces New Partnership with The London Idea
- Former Jet Blue CEO donates $10 million to Barger Leadership Institute
- BLI Hires a New Assistant Director
- BLI to Co-Host ‘Extreme by Design’ Film Screening, Discussion
- BLI awards Small Grant for Halfway Hijabi event
- BLI Launches New Capstone Experience
- BLI Launches New Fellows Program Structure
- Keep Calm and Lead On
- BLI Fellow Wins Wolverine Tank Pitch Contest
- BLI Congratulates Mya Haynes
- BLI Alumni Receive 2015-2016 Fulbright Honor
- The 2018 London Ideas Project is Announced
- Congrats to BLI partner Sandra Levitsky for being awarded the Golden Apple!
- Congrats to BLI Fellow and Peer Facilitator Elisabeth Benham
- Tales of Leadership: The Advanced Fellows Journey
- Welcome to the 2018 Capstone Cohort!
- BLI welcomes new director!
- BLI Across the Pond
- BLI Hosts Voting Guru Nancy Thomas
- Ram Mahalingam's award winning film to be screened at two film festivals.
- The Capstone Experience with the Migrant Education Initiative
- The Mindful Leader - Becoming an Engaged Leader
- A Weekend of Mindful Leadership
- Introducing the 2019 Capstone Teams
- The Peer Facilitator Experience
- Dinners with...
- BLI Students Start Small and Dream Big in Detroit
- From Freshman to Senior Year -- Four Years of Leadership Learning
- BLI Speaker Series: Food For Thought
- BLI Director, Ram Mahalingam featured in the Record
- Capstone Bootcamp 2019
- In a Distracted World, Solitude is Practice for Tomorrow’s Leaders
- A Conversation on Mindfulness, Bias and Racial Justice — a podcast with Ram Mahalingam
- The Mindful Leaders Retreat — Laying a Foundation
- Being a good leader is knowing when to practice gratitude
- Channeling Mindfulness
- Compassionate Leadership: Creating a Just, Inclusive and Mindful Society with Mirabai Bush
- Dinners With...
- Announcing Capstone 2020 Teams!
- Meet our 2020 Leadership Lab Teams!
- Leading Mindfully
- A Senior's Reflection on Peer Facilitating
- Expect Challenges
- Reflecting Back and Looking Forward
- From Leadership Lab, to Peer Facilitator, to Program Assistant
- Project Healthy Schools Global
- Learning to be an Effective Leader
- Leading Life with Dignity: A Challenge of Our Time
- Pause, Reflect, and Create
- What's Happening in the Lab?
- Capstone 3D Virtual Gallery
- Announcing the Break Away Podcast!
- BLI Advanced Fellow featured in M-LEAD's Leadership Lens Series!
- Two BLI Advanced Fellows Receive the Renowned MLK Spirit Award
- Stand Against Asian Violence
- BLI Hosts Alumni Panel
- Announcing the BLI's 2021 Capstone Cohort
- BLI Offers COVID-19 Hardship Grants
- ALA 175: Foundations in Leadership
- The Peer Facilitator Leadership Experience
- What's Happening in the Lab
- Capstone Boot Camp 2021
- Mindful Leader Reflection
- Learning to Lead with Compassion: A Mindful Leadership Retreat
- Okanagan Charter
- Foundations in Leadership, a Peer Facilitator Perspective
- Heart-Centered Leadership with Rebecca Irby
- Announcing the 2022 Leadership Certificate Cohort!
- Welcome the 2021-22 Mindful Leader Fellowship cohort!
- BLI Peace Leadership Retreat in Detroit
- BLI director awarded the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award
- Seithur Sanitation Initiative receives the MLK Spirit Award
- The Michigan Difference Student Leadership Awards
- Feedback is Love
- Deepening the Foundations for Equity and Renewal
- Creating Leaders – Being a Peer Facilitator at the BLI
- M-LEAD Leadership Lens Feature: Kaitlyn Colyer
- M-LEAD Leadership Lens Feature: Mya Harris
- What's Happening in the Lab
- The Leadership Certificate at the University of Michigan: Cohort 1
- Color of Care Reflection
- Mindful Leader Retreat Recap
- Social Transformation, a Passionate Community of Scholars
- The Michigan Difference Student Leadership Awards
- Break Away Podcast
- BLI Weekend in Detroit
- Leadership Lens with Olivia O'Connell
- Leadership Lens with Becky Woolf
- Leadership Philosophy Reflection
- Senior Reflection, Renuka Murthi
- Dignity and Well-being in the Workplace: A French Perspective
- BLI – Year One
- Teaching Leadership, a Senior Reflection
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When the spread of COVID-19 forced students off-campus in March 2020, it left many under- or unemployed. BLI’s ALA 175 Leadership Lab instructor Fatema Haque shared the stories of several student employees and students who were struggling to pay for housing, unexpected moving costs, and/or utilities/basic needs. In response, the BLI team transitioned one of their existing grant programs into a COVID-19 hardship grant program, rewriting the application format and criteria to expedite the review process. In one week, a grant program originally designed to fund student projects was transformed to cover unexpected, emergent expenses that threatened to derail student degree progress.
To date, the BLI has awarded 30 personal grants in amounts ranging from $500 to $1,000 to fellows struggling with personal hardships as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Applicants shared similar economic and housing insecurity stories and outlined the many ways they tried to make ends meet. The impact of the program and the feedback received from grant beneficiaries cemented the staffs’ belief that the shift of funds was invaluable to their personal and academic experiences.
With the present circumstances of the world, the BLI has been one of the few places on campus that offer COVID-19 relief to students in need… With utmost gratitude, my family and I feel lucky to have been a recipient and to have been able to cover the unexpected, emergent expenses that came as a result of the pandemic.
Being a full-time student and employee during this past school year while having to deal with the negative impacts of Covid-19 was a big challenge for me personally. This newer program the BLI has implemented with the Covid-19 grant personally helped me tremendously... The financial and emotional support that the professional staff and the BLI have provided, was a huge relief for me personally during my academic journey while in the pandemic.
This team created a time-limited project that had an incredible impact on my personal and professional life. This past year has been one of the hardest on my physical and mental wellbeing, and a hardship throughout has been finding ways to financially support myself… The staff and this program helped me make it through the toughest semester of my college career. I also cannot finish without expressing my gratitude towards these staff who not only pushed this wonderful program but who have constantly supported me and made me feel part of a tight-knit community. I have never felt more supported and welcomed in a time of incredible stress and uncertainty.
This project was one of two driven by the team’s desire to create positive experiences for students despite the isolated and stressful environmental pressures affecting all of us. It is impossible to be engaged and creative if you are at risk of losing your home or are dealing with the acute stress of caring for a sick family member. The BLI worked toward a positive solution to deliver funding for needs that had the potential to thwart their degree progress and hopefully offer a small moment of relief during the pandemic.