New Leaders Training Applications for 2023

We are still accepting applications for our virtual SEED 37D New Leaders Training this fall (September 1-November 30, 2023). We are no longer accepting application materials for sessions 37A, 37B, or 37C. Applications for virtual and in-person NLTs during 2024 will open after Labor Day. If you have any questions, please reach out to info@nationalseedproject.org.

Our dates for SEED New Leaders Training 2023 are:

SEED NLT 37A: Virtual,  March 1-May 22, 2023. This is an online, twelve-week session with weekly 2-hour Zoom calls on Mondays at 7 pm ET and 5 additional hours of online work (Admissions CLOSED).

SEED NLT 37B:  In person, July 7-13, 2023 in Northern California (Admissions CLOSED.)

SEED NLT 37C:  In person, July 23-29, 2023 in Northern California (Admissions CLOSED).

SEED NLT 37D: Virtual (September 1 to November 30) This is an online, twelve-week session with weekly 2- hour Zoom calls on Tuesdays at 7 pm ET and 5 additional hours of online work (Admissions are rolling with applications reviewed until July 15, 2023).

NOTE: holding all our NLT sessions are contingent upon meeting minimal enrollment numbers.  While we cannot make any guarantees, to date we have always met these minimum enrollment numbers.  If we are unable to meet minimum enrollment, payments will be refunded or rolled over to the following year.

Please read this page carefully before you begin your application. The application is a multistep process that requires your New Leaders Application, a Site Support Form from your administrator, and several further forms if you are accepted. The application link is at the bottom of this page.

Step 1: Before Completing the Application

To begin, please take some time to familiarize yourself with what the SEED Project is and to identify whether or not you feel SEED is appropriate for yourself and your community, organization, or institution. You can do this by reading about SEED and New Leaders Training (NLT) here on our website, contacting us to request a conversation, participating in a local SEED seminar, or speaking at length with someone who has participated in or led a SEED seminar. As you do so, please consider:

• Does your community, organization, institution have capacity (space, time, and resources) to host an online or in person  SEED seminar?
• Are there enough people (we advise 15-25 participants and a minimum of 8) who are interested in and able to engage in at least 25 hours of SEED seminars across the year?
• Do you have institutional (including financial) support from your leadership to host a in-person or online SEED seminar? (And even if you are part of the leadership structure, do you have support from other leaders as well?)
• How many SEED seminar groups will your institution, organization or community host? How many SEED leaders will you need to facilitate your anticipated number of seminar groups (we recommend one facilitator for every 10-15 participants)?

In your application, you and a supervising/fellow administrator will be asked to share your vision of SEED in your setting.

Step 2: Determine if you are ready to engage in the SEED process

Next, please review a copy of the 2023 essay questions in our application to understand what SEED NLW entails and what it requires of participants. Please do not submit this document to SEED; it is for your informational and drafting purposes only.

SEED takes self-reflection and being in conversation with others very seriously. Toward this end, we strongly recommend that you use your downloaded Word document to craft and revisit your answers before you begin the online application.

As you review the application, please pay particular attention to our checklist of statements about your commitments to SEED and attending SEED NLT at the beginning of the application. Many past participants have reported that SEED NLT is one of the best or most important professional development trainings that they have attended, and many of those same people have reported that SEED NLT is one of the most challenging and exhausting trainings that they have attended. Please consider:

• Do you have the capacity this coming fall to participate in an intensive online immersive training?
• Are you ready to share and learn about yourself, your identities, and your experiences and to work with others to do the same in the hopes of moving toward social justice?If accepted, what would you need to do to prepare and care for yourself during your NLT experience?
• Do you have the people and resources you need in your personal and professional life to support you attending NLT?

Step 3: Complete the Application

Application Sections/ Components/ Parts

The online application has two required sections and one optional section:

• Part 1: New Leaders Application: Applicant completes at the link below.
• Part 2: Site Support Form: Site support person  completes on behalf of applicant. Administrators applying to NLT may not complete this portion for themselves. The site support person you name in your application will be sent a link via email to do this once you have completed the New Leaders Application.
• Optional Scholarship Section: If your institution is seeking a scholarship, the site support person must complete the scholarship section at the end of the Site Support Form. (Criteria/details about scholarships below.)

Parts 1 and 2 must be submitted for application to be considered complete. SEED will not review your application until both Parts 1 and 2 are submitted.

SEED Project Screening Parameters 

As you prepare your answers, please consider that in reviewing applications and forming our SEED NLT cohorts we have several intentions:

• We first consider whether or not we believe the applicant and sponsoring organization understand what SEED is and whether or not they have the capacity to host and learn how to facilitate a seminar; 
• We next name the intention that all of our participants can see mirrors of themselves in other staff and participants based on their occupational roles and types of organizations as well as by the identities that we take up across the training. These include but are not limited to: gender identity, sexual identity, racial identity, socioeconomic identity, age identity, and physical, socioemotional, and cognitive identities. 
• Finally, we consider the overall balance of our cohorts, which we create with the intention of having as many identities represented as possible. That is, there is no social identity whose representation we prohibit in our cohort. 

We review applications on a rolling basis with these three criteria in mind, and at each decision point we will choose whether to accept an applicant, reject an applicant for not completing the application or not indicating their own and their organization’s capacity to host a SEED seminar, or defer our decision based on the evolving formation of our cohorts and staff teams. Additionally, we may defer applicants to future cohorts because of needed work by the applicant before training as a facilitator or organization before hosting a SEED seminar. 

If you do not agree with our decisions at any time or point, please contact us to let us know. We are willing to engage with you to seek a resolution that meets both of our needs.

Again, as part of your application process, you and a site support person (supervising/fellow administrator) will be asked to share about your capacity to attend NLT and to lead a SEED seminar. If you have questions regarding SEED or NLT or our application process please contact us.

Step 4: Submit the Application 

When you are ready to submit your application answers online, please complete all pages of the form at the "Complete Application" link below. When you click "Submit" at the end, the system will send an email to your chosen site support person and request that they complete their parts of the application, the Site Support Form and (optionally) the Scholarship Section. Note that your answers are not shared with each other.

You will not be able to save your application part way through and return to it. Again, we strongly recommend that you compose your essay answers in advance using the copy of the 2023 questions, spending several days on them. You can then copy and paste your answers into the online application form. Please do not submit a separate doc to SEED; we are sharing the questions for you in this format for your informational and drafting purposes only.

Click here to complete the training application.

After You Apply

You will hear from us approximately 1-3  weeks after the review date following submission of both your Application and your Site Support Form.

Should you be accepted, you will be expected to attend all of the session you select. Your application indicates the location and dates of the NLT you want to attend.

Upon completion of your SEED NLT training, you will design, coordinate, and facilitate an ongoing SEED seminar in your community, organization, or institution. We expect SEED seminars to be at least 8 (and preferably 15-25) colleagues meeting on a regular schedule for at least 90 minutes a session for a total of at least 24 hours over a period of no fewer than 10 weeks and no more than 24 months. Attending your SEED NLT prepares you to lead this seminar.

Fees

The fees for SEED participation in 2023 are:

The fees for SEED participation in either 12- week virtual or 7-day in-person sessions in 2023 are:

• $6000 per participant is the fee for private schools and private site partners.
• $4000 per participant for all public schools and public site  partners.
• Additional scholarships (up to $2000) are available for eligible institutions which include public P-20 schools, community organizations  and other institutions with demonstrated need

Applicant spaces will not be reserved until all application and support forms are accepted and approved by SEED and a $1000 deposit is received by SEED for each accepted applicant. The entirety of the payment can be made then, or else the second portion of the payment is due two weeks following the end of the applicant's/applicants' SEED NLT. Please note our policy on Refunds, Switching Participants, and Deferrals.

• A year-long professional development opportunity for approximately 15-25 local colleagues, led by the organization’s newly trained SEED leader(s)
• Ongoing assistance from SEED co-directors, SEED staff, and other experienced SEED leaders
• Access to SEED leaders-only resources and online community
• Print and digital media resources for adults and youth
• Regional networks for SEED leaders
• Monthly calls with SEED leaders and SEED staff
• Weekly check-ins during Craft Cabin
• Three check-in leader reports during the year
• As-needed support via info@nationalseedproject.org.

Schools and sponsoring sites are asked to provide an additional $250 - $500 per seminar for books, handouts, materials, and food, to be provided directly to the seminar leader(s) (not to SEED) and handled locally.

SEED expects partner sites to support the year-long SEED seminar and seminar leader(s), through strong verbal endorsement from administration, and through material support, such as funds to purchase books and DVDs for the seminar (which can start an equity library onsite), access to copy machines and printers, time during all-faculty/all-staff meetings for SEED, and backing to ensure seminars have a regular meeting place and nourishing food.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If You Are Seeking a Scholarship

SEED is committed to partnering with communities, organizations, and institutions who demographically reflect our broader world. Toward this end, SEED has always worked to provide scholarships through our own grant writing and fundraising on our own and as well as in collaboration with partner sites in order to support both diversifying our cohorts and ensuring that those further from social justice are able to attend. We are working to be more open about our scholarship process to further this goal. For instance, all public schools are automatically eligible for a $2000 scholarship as are non-profit organizations with annual budgets under $250,000. Please note that all communities, organizations, and institutions are welcome to apply for scholarships, and we do grant scholarships of different sizes.

For cohorts 37 A, B, C, and D in 2023, the fee for a partner that is a public institution or public-facing community organization is $4000 per participant. The fee for a private institution or for-profit partner is $6000 per participant.  Partners may apply for additional scholarships based on the community they serve (e.g. the % of students of color or students receiving full/reduced price meals) 

The scholarship portion of the Site Support Form must be completed by someone authorized to approve and receive funding and to support all aspects of the SEED seminar, including finances, logistics, and promotion of equitable education in the proposed SEED site. We must receive the scholarship portion (located within) and the Site Support Form from the designated site support person, as well as a completed New Leaders Application from each person who wishes to become a SEED leader.

The basic criteria for scholarships are:

1. The partner site's capacity and commitment to host a SEED seminar for at least two years following receipt of the scholarship.
2. The partner site's commitment is that if the SEED seminar does not occur, the partner will owe the total amount of the scholarship to the SEED Project.
3. Scholarships will be awarded based on demonstrated financial need, diversity in terms of marginalized populations, and public mission of the site.

We anticipate that total scholarships will range from $1000 to $4000 per person, bringing the overall cost per participant to $2000-$5000 per applicant..

 In your application, you and a supervising/fellow administrator will be asked to share your vision of SEED in your setting.

Any program that takes one person and trains that person to train a dozen or more other people who are directly involved in the lives of others is most cost effective. Educational equity for our diverse population, taught by example with love and compassion, is worthy of subsidy. Allowing our children to see their own experiences reflected as well as having a window to see the lives of others allows students the opportunity to invest themselves in their education on both an intellectual and visceral level.

— Secondary School Math Teacher, New Mexico