Exploring Leadership helps high school students become active leaders in their communities. Over six weeks you’ll gain the skills you need to make a real difference, with hands-on training in critical thinking, goal setting, and leading groups. You’ll take part in immersive leadership workshops, gain valuable experience through a professional internship with a local organization, and create a community project from start to finish. By the end of the program, you’ll have stronger leadership skills, real-world work experience, a deeper understanding of local issues, a network of mentors, and the confidence to take action and make a positive impact.
This Coro California program is offered in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The application cycle has closed. Submit an Interest Form to receive recruitment updates.
Program Overview
Program Benefits
Ideal Candidates & Eligibility
Format & Curriculum
Program Structure
Six-week full-time summer program running Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM in San Francisco. The program combines hands-on leadership training, professional internship placements, and the development and delivery of a community action project. Explore the program calendar for more information.
Curriculum Themes
Content addresses essential youth leadership competencies including critical thinking and problem analysis, goal setting and strategic planning, effective communication across differences, facilitation and group leadership, collaboration and teamwork, and community organizing for positive change.
Professional Development Focus
Internship placements provide real-world work experience across nonprofit, business, and government sectors. Youth Fellows gain practical professional skills, understand workplace expectations, build professional networks, and explore potential career pathways through hands-on experience.
Learning Approach
Coro’s experiential methods center active practice over passive listening. You’ll engage in case discussions, leadership simulations, peer exchanges, and reflective exercises. Facilitators create space for mindfulness, vulnerability, and authentic connection, fostering psychological safety for adaptive collaboration and innovation.
Program Philosophy
Coro’s approach emphasizes three core principles: active leadership practice as lifelong learning, relating productively across differences in identities and perspectives, and embracing curiosity and vulnerability as foundations for authentic leadership and meaningful change.
Cost & Financial Support
Tuition
There is no cost to participants. Exploring Leadership is tuition-free, removing financial barriers to access transformative youth leadership development.
Completion Stipend
Each participant receives a $250 stipend upon completing the program. This stipend helps offset transportation costs and other expenses related to program participation.
Application Process & Key Dates
How to Apply
Complete the online application sharing your interest in community leadership, openness to new experiences, and commitment to full program participation. Review the Application Guide for detailed instructions and tips for crafting strong responses. Applications are reviewed holistically considering leadership potential, willingness to learn, and ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
Application Deadlines
The application timeline for the summer 2027 cohort is in progress and will be updated when it is finalized.
Selection Timeline
Applications are reviewed following the deadline(s); select applicants will be invited to a virtual interview and notified of cohort selection afterward.
