From National President, Linda Kirschbaum

"ORT Beyond," our 2013 Leadership Institute/Annual Meeting, brought together many of ORT America’s top leaders from around the country for one of the most productive gatherings ORT America has had in quite some time. Here are my top "takeaways" from the weekend of March 9 - 11:

• Perhaps my favorite "ORT moment" washearing from Leandro Margulis, northern California’s Next Gen leader and president of the Silicon Valley Next Generation chapter. Leandro is a graduate of ORT Argentina who went on to get his MBA at Yale. This educational combination has helped him become a successful executive as director of Impulsa Business Accelerator in San Francisco. He is only too glad to help provide those same opportunities he received from his ORT education to future generations of ORT students and was an inspiration to all of us.
• ORT has never been more relevant. We should all take great pride in Kadima Mada/Science Journey, which has revolutionized science, math, and technology education in Israel, but we should also not forget the dozens of innovative ORT programs from across the world that are changing lives every single day.
• We are blessed with a dedicated leadership who share a passion for ORT and a visionary, positive approach for expanding our supporter base.
• ORT America’s Next Generation leadership will keep all of us on our toes as they forge their own way and challenge us to generate alternatives to the way we do our business.
• Renowned organizational coach Deborah Grayson Riegel's presentation at our Leadership Institute entitled "Appreciative Inquiry" made us examine our organizational selves so that we could devise successful strategies to turn what we would like to do into what we will do. Exploring opportunities rather than focusing on problems helped us move forward.

"ORT Beyond" is ORT America's guiding principle for 2013 as we develop new approaches to adding donors, streamlining operations, and promoting the remarkable worldwide network of ORT programs.

One such project that you will hear more and more about is called the Anieres II World ORT Engineering/Technology Scholarship Program, which is a collaboration between World ORT, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, and the Israeli Ministry of Education, all made possible by generous a grant from an American alum from the original Institute Central ORT in Geneva, Switzerland. Stay tuned to learn more about this visionary project which will provide future engineers from the Diaspora and Israel the opportunity of a lifetime.

Thank you for being a part of the ORT family. Together, we are providing hope and opportunity through education, just as ORTists before us have been doing for 133 years.

Linda Kirschbaum
National President
ORT America