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Thank you for your interest in applying to the Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program.

PROGRAM AND APPLICATION OVERVIEW

The George W. Bush Institute is committed to improving transition and outcomes for veterans and their families. In pursuit of this goal in 2018, we developed the Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program aimed at individuals serving our nation's veterans who are motivated to broaden their skillsets and influence across the country. The program draws from and builds upon the Bush Institute’s existing leadership and military service programming. By developing the leadership skills of individuals who are serving our nation’s veterans and helping them scale their work through leadership projects and the network that is created, the program widely impacts our nation’s veterans and the services and opportunities available to them.

While the program is designed to assemble a unique and diverse cohort of high-potential leaders, Scholars most successful in the program share certain personal characteristics:

  • Civically Minded: Willing and eager to take actions to improve society.
  • Eager to Receive Feedback: Willing to seek, humbly accept, and actively respond to feedback.
  • Accepting of Diverse Points of View: Welcoming opportunities to interact with and learn from others with different backgrounds or perspectives.
  • Meaningful Professional Experience: Having a breadth and depth of professional experience [though “quality” is not easily measured in time, the majority of accepted applicants have 10+ years of professional experience and are at a point in their careers where their participation in the Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program will be felt for many years to come].
  • Demonstrated Leadership: Wanting to build on an established record of meaningful leadership. The Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program is not an introductory course in leadership.
  • In Positions of Influence: Having an opportunity and ability to take action and promote change in their communities or organizations.
  • Committed to the Program: Willing to fully participate in a rigorous and intense five-month program by being on site at modules in different locations for approximately 15 days and spending 40+ hours on pre- and post-module assignments.

For those admitted to the 2025 program, the program schedule will occur as follows:

  • Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program Class of 2025 Onboarding Webinar: Tuesday, June 10, 2025 from 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM CT
  • Module One: July 15, 2025 - July 18, 2025
  • Module Two: August 13, 2025 - August 15, 2025
  • Module Three: September 10, 2025 - September 12, 2025
  • Module Four: October 7, 2025 - October 10, 2025
  • Module Five: November 3, 2025 - November 6, 2025

Ask Me About Webinars

Interested in learning more about the Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program? We will be hosting two informal Ask Me About webinars with Program Alumni to share more about their experience virtually! Webinar dates are listed below. To receive webinar information, please begin an application or reach out to us at leadershipprograms@bushcenter.org for additional details. 

  • November 7, 2024 from 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CT
  • December 17, 2024 from 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM CT

The Bush Institute is committed to ensuring that leaders across the country can participate in this program at no cost to the Scholars. Tuition, housing, meals, and travel during the sessions are fully funded by contributions from foundations, corporations, and generous donations.

Each Scholar is also required to have a Personal Leadership Project (PLP) that you will work on throughout the program. This project may represent the next step in an initiative on which you are already working, or the first step in a new project. The project may be part of your current work responsibilities, or something you are pursuing outside of your normal work. The project should provide you with the opportunity to apply the skills and competencies learned throughout the program. We expect each Scholar to begin the program having adequately thought through many of the important elements required to achieve a significant outcome by the end of the program. An appropriate PLP will:

Represent an Initiative that Will Impact Veteran Outcomes – A PLP can focus on an existing or a new initiative in which you are currently involved or plan to initiate. 
Focus on a Tangible Result – PLPs should have an achievable, short-term outcome by the end of the five-month program. Medium- and long-term outcomes are also expected, but the achievement of those outcomes is not expected within the program’s five-month time frame.
Leverage Participants’ Existing Knowledge and Experience – Participants must demonstrate they have established momentum and the foundational knowledge/experience to achieve the project’s outcomes.
Require Increased Personal Performance – A Scholar should be able to articulate how the achievement of the PLP’s outcomes will be significantly enhanced by his/her participation in the program. 

Throughout this application, you will be required to provide personal background information [academic, professional, etc.], responses to essay questions, recommendations, and a summary of your Personal Leadership Project. For questions throughout the application that require a text-entry response, you may “copy and paste” or directly enter your response into the text box. Please note that the use of Artificial Intelligence is strictly prohibited.

We will use these materials to evaluate every applicant on the attributes described above. Following a thorough review process of each application, we will invite a group of finalists to interview for final selection into the program. All application materials, including recommendations, must be submitted online by 11:59 PM PST on Sunday, January 5, 2025. Finalists will be notified in February if they have been invited to participate in the interview process. Interviews will be conducted via videoconference in April and final acceptance decisions will be made in May 2025.

Again, thank you for your interest in the Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program. We look forward to getting to know you through this application process.

Please click Next >> to begin your application.