Newsroom

MEDIA ALERT: The Sorensen Institute is the subject of a story in today's Roanoke Times titled "Sorensen Schoalrship to Honor Late Political Aide."

Late Roanoke Valley political wunderkind Fred Hutchins used the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership's College Leaders program to accelerate his rise to prominence. Now, Hutchins will be memorialized through a scholarship to the same program. The scholarship is being established by a group of Sorensen Institute alumni from Southwest Virginia. The program brings college students from around the state together on the University of Virginia campus for a four-week session.

"It's a microcosm of people from different schools all over the state interested in political leadership," said Joyce Waugh, a Sorensen Institute graduate and president of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. "It's about working across the aisle to get things done, understanding someone else's perspective and being able to work with them to accomplish what's best. "We thought if anyone exemplifies those principles, it's Freddie," she said.

Click here to read the full article.

The Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership has received a record number of applications to its 2009 Political Leaders Program: 112 applications were received before the Monday, November 10 deadline.

Executive Director Bob Gibson today released the following statement to board members and alumni: I am delighted to announce that the Sorensen Institute received a record 112 applications for the 2009 Political Leaders Program.  This is an almost 25% increase over our previous high number.  We were also thrilled to have record numbers of applicants from the Fredericksburg, Southside, and Roanoke and Southwest regions of the state.

Thanks again to our alumni for being such excellent ambassadors for these programs and for all of your hard work recruiting applicants.

Sorensen staff and board members will conduct personal interviews with the 112 applicants over the next few weeks. The 2009 PLP class—which will include approximately 35 individuals from communities throughout Virginia and representing the full spectrum of political affiliations—will be announced publicly after the holidays.

The 2009 Political Leaders Program will be Sorensen's 15th anniversary year of classes. Click here to learn more about the PLP.

The priority deadline for applications to the 2009 Candidate Training Program has passed. But Sorensen continues to receive applications to that program on a rolling basis from Virginians interested in running for office in 2009. Click here for more information.

Members of the Political Leaders Program Class of 2008 traveled to Ronaoke this past weekend— enjoying an optional Friday tour at the Smith Mountain Lake Hydro Dam power plant.

Over the weekend, the class heard from and talked politics and policy with Delegate Morgan Griffith, Dr. Bob Holsworth of VCU, Delegate Jennifer McClellan (PLP 2001, CTP 2005), former Secretary of the Commonwealth Betsy Beamer, and Executive Director of the Virginia Public Access Project David Poole.

They also had an opportunity to explore lobbying in Virginia with John-Garrett Kemper (PLP 1999), Vice President and Counsel, Kemper Consulting, as well as Don Hall, President of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association and Treasurer and member of the Sorensen State Advisory Board.

The Political Leaders Program Class of 2008 will celebrate its graduation in Charlottesville the weekend of December 5.

The Soresen Institute would like to congratulate and thank everyone who participated in the exciting and historic political elections this year: those who stood for office, those who volunteered on campaigns or at polling places, and especially all of those who exercised their right to vote. Your participation is absolutely critical to keeping our democracy strong.

We would also like to recognize the graduates of the Sorensen Institute who ran for office this year in Virginia. Twelve Sorensen alumni were in the running yesterday and we are proud of each one of them for stepping forward to get involved. We are also proud to report that six of those graduates won elected office yesterday. Congratulations to:

David Cox is a member of the Political Leaders Program Class of 2008 and a graduate of the Candidate Training Program Class of 2005. David won a seat on the Lexington City Council.

Click here for the vote totals and click here for news coverage.

Glenn Davis, a graduate of the Political Leaders Program Class of 2007, won a seat on the Virginia Beach City Council.

Click here for results and click here for news coverage.

Emma Violand-Sanchez, a graduate of the Candidate Training Program Class of 2008, was elected to the Arlington County School Board.

Click here for the results.

Other Sorensen alumni were re-elected to office yesterday:

• Dan Edwards, a graduate of the Political Leaders Program Class of 1999, won re-election to the Virginia Beach School Board. Click here for totals and click here for news coverage.
• Chris Hilbert, a graduate of the Candidate Training Program Class of 2004, won re-election to the Richmond City Council. Click here for results.
• Rosemary Wilson, a graduate of the Political Leaders Program Class of 1997 and a member of our Hampton Roads Regional Board, won re-election to the Virginia Beach City Council. Click here for vote votals and click here for news coverage.

The deadline for applications to the 2009 Political Leaders and Candidate Training Programs is now less than one week away.

All applications are due by 8am Monday morning, November 10.

Click here to learn more about the 2009 PLP.

Click here to learn more about the 2009 CTP.

Charlottesville resident Dahlia Lithwick—a Senior Editor at Slate, contributor to NPR, and columnist for Newsweek—has recently posted a Slate article that takes a close look at Virginia's changing role as a swing state in national politics. Sorensen's Bob Gibson was interviewed for the story.

Click here to read the article.

THIS JUST IN: Alexandria City Public Schools Television has announced that it will broadcast "Across the Aisle" beginning today, October 31, and running through Wednesday, November 5 at 9am and 8pm each day. Here is the press release in full:

In these times of nasty election campaigns and bitter partisanship in government, is there any hope that Americans can come together politically?  It appears that the best model for returning civility to our nation’s political process might be found in Charlottesville, at the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.
 
ACROSS THE AISLE follows members of a highly selective class of adult students from across the Commonwealth to track their personal and political transformations during a yearlong training program geared for public servants, activists, and lobbyists.  The documentary focuses on seven of the 35 citizen leaders accepted into the 2007 training program.
 
Class members come face to face with their personal biases and political limitations by arguing against their own positions, breaking down political stereotypes, spending real time with their opponents, balancing a state budget, and touring state-run facilities to learn a new and highly functional approach to politics.
 
ACROSS THE AISLE is a poignant and personal story that reveals a new model for political leadership, in which the most powerful tools are civility, trust, and respect.
 
ACROSS THE AISLE may be viewed on ACPS-TV, channel 71 on cable in Alexandria, from October 31 to November 5 at 9:00 a.m. and at 8:00 p.m. daily.

Here's the second half of the Kojo Namdi Show from this afternoon. The conversation continued to explore the political scene in Virginia—with a focus on transportation. Kojo and his guests also discussed the ways that Sorensen graduates can help reach across the aisle to forge solutions to the public policy challenges Virginia faces.

The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU in Washington focused for one full hour today on the Sorensen Institute. Guests included Bob Gibson, State Advisory Board member and former Virginia Delegate Paul Harris, and current member of the House of Delegates and Sorensen graduate Margi Vanderhye (PLP 2006, CTP 2005). This first part of the program profiled the work of the Sorensen Instiute and explored Virginia politics.