(upbeat music) - Goff Strategic Leadership Institute believes that leadership is for everyone and helps provide the tools and experiences to help people grow.

Ruchi Watson is here to tell us more about the organization.

Hi Ruchi, thanks for being here.

So why don't you give us kind of an overview of the institute and what you do for undergraduates.

- Thanks for having me.

So when you think about what's going on in the world, there's so many changes.

People are, all the time, I hear stories, even in the green room just before this, of things are difficult.

How do we improve our organizations?

And I often hear, "We just need better leadership and different leadership."

And so that's what Goff is really about, is how do we help people be more successful, develop their leadership skills, no matter their position or level in an organization.

Whether you're a nonprofit, a small business, a big company, a junior leader, or the CEO, everybody needs leadership development to drive change today.

- Wow, and I know you focus on the younger generation and provide some internships.

How does that work?

- We have a number of programs for students at The University of Utah to really meet them where they are.

So one of our key programs is called "Explorers."

We always tell students go out and get experience, but how did they get experience if they haven't had experience, right?

That catch 22.

So we actually curate internships for them at the level that they are in and then to help them develop.

So it's not just about having the internship working with a community partner, but how do you really learn from it, get the feedback, the coaching.

The trust and the care we develop with them is really next level.

And then they leave us and say, "Now I have the confidence to go tackle even more."

- God, what an opportunity you're giving them.

I mean, really, that's amazing.

So who are some of the people they partner with or they get internships with?

- Yeah, so many of our great partners in the community, which could be nonprofits, small businesses, large organizations.

We work with over 150, and half of them work with us year over year.

So it could be folks like Maverick or CHG at the big company level.

It could be Free Living Co or another startup that's helping with clean products, or someone like The Other Side Village, a nonprofit doing great work with our community.

- Wonderful, well what an opportunity you give them, and thank you so much for being here.

Thanks.

- Thank you.

- And if you'd like to know more about this organization, the Goff Strategic Leadership Institute, and its project deadline for partnerships is July 1st, go to goff.utah.edu.

I'm Mary Dickson, thanks for watching "Contact."

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Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

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