Almost every summer since 1990, hundreds of undergraduate and alumni Phis gather in Mother Oxford for the Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute. Each year the institute hosts a variety of programming, often including the Phikeia Educator training track, the Peer Mentor program, the Shaffer Honors College of Leadership, a House Corporation Summit, and many standing Phi Delta Theta traditions.
Tio and Janelle Kleberg endowed the program with the Fraternity’s first-ever $1 million donation are on-site for what proves to be the largest Phi Delt educational conference each year and one of the most impactful for the young and emerging leaders who attend from each chapter.
Upon its inception, the event was called simply Leadership College. It was going to be a flagship conference, at Miami’s campus, for the sole purpose of developing leadership skills for our undergraduate students.
For the first recap written by Robert A. Biggs, Georgia Southern ’76, in The Scroll of the very first Leadership College, see this 1987 issue of The Scroll of Phi Delta Theta for coverage of the earliest known institute, called Leadership College back then.
An additional historical perspective from In the Bond, explains an initiative during the leadership of Robert J. Miller.
This video provides a wonderful overview by volunteers and students about the impact of the Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute.
Here are a few 2001 photos and a 2018 group shot of the growing group of Kleberg delegates. We are excited to welcome young leaders back to Oxford this summer for the 2022 Kleberg Emerging Leadership Conference.
