The World Leadership Corps is preparing to launch a major new Sino-American service program in 2010 as its primary offering. This program will build on the success and lessons of the Pilot Program and the ongoing experience of the WLC in placing volunteers during the past three years. For three years, beginning in the late summer of 2010, the WLC will focus the majority of its efforts on a program that will bring promising future leaders from America and China together in small teams to serve for a year in significant projects in the developing world, especially Africa. For many decades to come, the United States and China will play large roles in the worldwide struggles to end poverty, to preserve the embattled environment, and to end violence within and between societies. We believe that a collaborative service program linking future leaders from the United States and China will promote a greater sense of partnership between the two countries in meeting 21st century global challenges.

The WLC is seeking to develop a partnership between a prominent American institution of higher education and a key university in China that reflects the cross-cultural values and high standards of the program. These two institutions will provide the student volunteers throughout the three-year program, and they will serve as the North American and Asia headquarters for the program. At the end of the three year Sino-American program, the WLC will distill the lessons of the partnership program and then open up the international service program to other countries, eventually creating a global network of colleges and universities who will nominate students for service assignments. The aim of the program will be to identify students of great promise for future leadership and to support them for a year in cross-cultural service assignments that will make a significant difference to the people served and also deepen the future leaders’ commitment to global values and understanding.

We will keep you informed on this web site of our planning efforts as we point toward the launch in 2010. This is difficult and critical period for the world community, and we are convinced that the careful preparation of future leaders through cross-cultural discovery and meaningful service is one of the keys to ensuring a sustainable future for the planet.

Thomas L. Benson, Executive Director

The World Leadership Corps is based on the idea that international volunteer service and cross-cultural living can make a difference in meeting critical global challenges and provide life-changing experiences for future leaders.

In his book, The Meaning of the 21st Century, published in 2006, Dr. James Martin, World Education Corps founder and chairman, advocates the creation of an international service program that unites the energy and idealism of youth to meet global needs and to prepare future leaders in the "transition generation" for their responsibilities in the critical decades ahead. With support from Dr. Martin, a volunteer service organization, the World Education Corps, was created. In 2006, the organization refined its mission and changed its name to the World Leadership Corps.

One of the most urgent needs in both the developing world and among the developed nations is conscientious, cross-culturally experienced, and well-informed leadership. Again and again, well-intentioned reforms and plans for addressing critical problems have failed owing to a breakdown in leadership, whether through ignorance, lack of cultural understanding, inadequate preparation, or corrupt practices. The WLC was organized to prepare future leaders who are well informed about the challenges facing the planet, who have lived abroad and learned the unique lessons that come from cross-cultural encounter, and who have studied and reflected on the moral and professional responsibilities of those entrusted with leadership.

The World Leadership Corps is associated with the James Martin 21st Century School at the University of Oxford, endowed by Dr. Martin in 2005, serving as an independent link between its research activities and WLC service projects throughout the world. During its first three years, the WLC sponsored volunteers in 15 countries in partnership with a number of outstanding international agencies, including iEARN (the International Education and Resource Network), the Carter Center, the Earth Charter Initiative, the Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring (DREAM) Project, ECOLOGIA, Curriki, and the University for Peace.

Whatever else education achieves, it must equip young people to take responsibility for our future — and to find adventure and joy in being global citizens in a time of historic transition.James Martin, The Meaning of the 21st Century

Home > Meeting Global Challenges

Contemporary global conditions and the challenges of the 21st century require fresh approaches to international service and to the training of future leaders. In response to this changing environment, the WLC has based its mission and programs on a number of core values.

• Multinational Service
• Respect for Host-Country Priorities
• Building Sustainable Capacity
• Creative Use of Digital Technologies
• Service Learning
• Strategic Partnerships
• Full Support for Volunteers
• Volunteer Networking

Home > Our Core Values

Dr. Thomas L. Benson is an educator with broad experience in academic leadership and international education. He served as the founding co-director of the World Education Institute at the James Martin 21st Century School at the University of Oxford. He was a founder and the first chairman of the ASIANetwork, a North American consortium of liberal arts institutions. Currently, he serves as the founding chairman of the AFRICANetwork. He is also a board member of the Myanmar Foundation and the Japan ICU Foundation. Dr. Benson was a faculty member at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, for 15 years and the first director of its Interdisciplinary Studies and General Honors programs. He is the President Emeritus of Green Mountain College, an innovative, environmentally oriented liberal arts college in Vermont. Dr. Benson has published papers in the fields of international education, the humanities, and ethics and public policy. He holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and The Johns Hopkins University.

Home > Leadership

Dr. James Martin is an author, business leader, and social entrepreneur in the fields of digital technology, education, and international development. In its 25th anniversary issue, Computerworld ranked Dr. Martin fourth in its list of the 25 individuals who have most influenced the world of computer technology.  Dr. Martin's book, The Wired Society: A Challenge for Tomorrow, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His latest book, The Meaning of the 21st Century: An Urgent Blueprint for Ensuring Our Future was published in August 2006 by Penguin/Riverhead.  A series based on the book is also being filmed for public television. Dr. Martin is the founder of Oxford University's new, multidisciplinary 21st Century School, whose mission is to identify and develop useful strategies for responding to the most serious problems and the most promising opportunities facing the planet in the new century. He is also the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Headstrong, an international consulting company.