Their projects reflect their passions. Kira O’Brien, a political science major with a Middle Eastern studies minor, founded a literature discussion circle for Muslim and Jewish women. Marina Yalon, who loved mentoring high school students in Jersey City, formed a creative writing workshop for high school girls. Jennifer Kanyamibwa took her Rwandan family history to heart and created a panel discussion to raise awareness of genocide.

For the past 10 years, Rutgers’ Leadership Scholars Certificate Program at the Institute for Women’s Leadership (IWL) has educated diverse college women about leadership and empowered them to take responsibility for social change.

The program, offered through the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, provides opportunities for students to come together in a small, vibrant learning community to study and practice leadership for social change. The two-year, selective program this year had 38 students enrolled; over the past 10 years, 119 women have graduated from the program.

A cornerstone of the program is the semester-long social action project each student must undertake. Students have tackled issues of domestic violence, teen pregnancy, literacy, and human rights through projects that strive to serve the community surrounding the university campus, said Mary S. Hartman, IWL director.

The projects help students deepen their understanding of women’s leadership and their contributions to social change. They also give them the opportunity to develop their own leadership skills, which they can employ in their classes, during internships, and, later, in careers, Hartman said.

Senior Kira O’Brien, a Brooklyn native and a Quaker, became interested in Middle Eastern politics after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Virginia. After interning in spring 2008 at OneVoice Movement, a conflict resolution organization working for a two state solution for Israel and Palestine, she knew she wanted her social action project to open an interfaith dialog.

Her project, “The Real Women of Abraham,” is a women’s literature circle in which Jewish and Muslim women from Rutgers read and discuss short stories by Muslim and Jewish female authors. O’Brien said she envisioned the discussions as “a fun, empowering, and engaging way to look at our common experiences as women, as well as to think more about interfaith dialogue.”

Some of the projects can be intensely personal. Junior Jennifer Kanyamibwa used her Rwandan family background as a springboard for a project aimed to bring awareness to genocide and civil war. “I had to bear witness to part of my family’s history,” Kanyamibwa said.

Kanyamibwa’s project addressed how the Rwandan genocide changed international perspectives on genocides and ethnic civil war. She brought together experts on the Rwandan judicial system, human rights, and women’s rights in a panel that explored the topics of justice, peace, development, and the consequences of war on women. Donations from the December event went to the African Women’s Council, a Washington-based nongovernmental organization.

Senior Marina Yalon, who was born in Belarus and immigrated to the United States at age 5, said she found her niche at IWL as a leadership scholar. “The greatest benefit of the program is the community of smart, successful, and ambitious women who welcomed and mentored me,” Yalon said.

Her project actually grew out of another leadership scholars program. Yalon took part in the High School Leadership Program at Snyder High School in Jersey City and became a mentor and adviser to female students in the program. When lack of funds brought the original program to an end, Yalon was determined to continue her work with the students.

“I realized the girls needed to improve their writing skills and become comfortable articulating themselves through their writing,” Yalon said, and so she developed a creative writing workshop called, “Our Voices, Ourselves.”

She is helping the students learn to look at writing as another life skill. “Writing is so much more than just knowledge of grammar, and good writing can help anyone advance in the world,” she said.

To help celebrate the program’s 10th anniversary of the program, Mary K. Trigg, its founding director, is editing a book of essays by graduates titled, Leading the Way: Young Women’s Activism for Social Change. It will be published by Rutgers University Press in January 2010.

On March 19, the state bestowed its annual Wynona M. Lipman Empowerment Award on the Leadership Scholars Program. Rutgers was one of two institutions and nine individuals honored by the state this year.

The award is named for the late Senator Wynona M. Lipman, the first African-American woman elected to the New Jersey State Senate and a champion of women’s rights, minorities, and children. It recognizes outstanding women and community organizations that have developed policies, services, or programs that benefit the women of New Jersey. It is given by the state Department of Community Affairs’ Division on Women and the New Jersey Advisory Commission on the Status of Women in honor of Women’s History Month.