Community leaders, activists and concerned citizens from throughout the Baton Rouge area gathered Friday in the Old State Capitol for the Leadership Fellows Retreat.
They were joined by a group of Harvard Leadership Fellows, who led those in attendance in brainstorming sessions for solutions to problems facing the city.
“These people have a lot of ideas, a lot of experience,” said Raymond Jetson, a 2010 Fellow, pastor of Star Hill Church in Baton Rouge and organizer of the conference. “The question is, how do we use that collective experience to improve things in this city?”
Jetson said the conference was designed to provoke thought about the Baton Rouge community and how it can improve. It was also meant to “connect people passionate about these problems so that they have a network going forward,” he said.
The Fellows are international business and community leaders selected annually by a team of Harvard University faculty.
The Fellows are given access to courses, expertise and intellectual resources at Harvard in preparation for a community involvement project, where they will use their experience and new knowledge to help a social cause.
Jetson said 17 of the 22 Fellows for 2010 were in attendance Friday.
The retreat was based around three main policy issues — education, health care and community/faith-based work.
The retreat started with presentations by several of the Fellows. The assembly then broke up into groups focused on one of the three issues, with a Fellow serving as moderator for each group.
“I think there were some very interesting conversations,” said Marcel Amariglio, a Fellow who led a group session on education. “I personally found it quite stimulating.”
Amariglio is chairman of the leading steel service center in Greece and is founder of an Israel-based steel trading firm that operates throughout the Middle East.
“I’m really interested in Rev. Jetson’s approach,” said Peter Zimmerman, a faculty member of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. “He’s persuaded people here to get excited about Baton Rouge.”
Zimmerman said the problems Baton Rouge faces in the three areas discussed at the conference are solvable if people get together.
“They’re human-side problems,” he said. “It just takes the right people.”