WHY THE SCHOOL OF LEADERSHIP WAS FOUNDED
“The idea for the School of Leadership came about because we have few translators, but many monastic graduates with a very good command of Philosophy, lacking skills in Communication and other modern Leadership skills. IBA’s School of Leadership is our response to this need for a more diversified education for these monks. Our goal is to find the best way of producing future leadership, using various approaches in our initiative to develop different types of leaders; bilingual teachers, interpreters, administrators and translators.”
- Khenpo Ngawang Jorden, Ph.D
MORE ABOUT THE MONKS
The IBA’s School of Leadership will welcome thirty of the best qualified graduates from the monastic colleges of India, Nepal and Tibet, to begin a three-year intensive program in October of 2008. Most of them will be from Tibetan refugee family backgrounds, and will be speakers of Tibetan and Nepali, though some may have Hindi, and a bit of English. Of the great number who have applied for this program, those meeting the initial academic pre-requisites have been invited here to write an entrance exam in Buddhist Philosophy and to be interviewed to determine their suitability for the program. The thirty monks who show the most outstanding promise in their interviews and exams will be chosen as the program’s participants.
WHAT THE SCHOOL WILL TEACH
As well as acquiring modern non-traditional skills, like Computer Literacy, Accounting and Administrative Systems, those who show the most aptitude during their studies of languages current in the modern Buddhist world, (like English and Mandarin), will be given courses in specialized and fully traditional topics of study that are essential for Classical Literary Tibetan translation, like Sanskrit, Classical Tibetan Grammar, Calligraphy, and Poetry.
Due to the recent widespread interest in Buddhism in Spanish speaking countries on several continents, Spanish has been growing in importance as a new language of Buddhist communication. The School of Leadership will eventually add Spanish to its curriculum, to address the growing need for Spanish/Tibetan interpreters and translators.
WHAT THE MONKS WILL STUDY EACH YEAR
Basic Language acquisition, in an immersion atmosphere, with conversation partners as well as teachers, and basic Computer Literacy will comprise the bulk of the first year’s offerings. In their second year, the monks will intensify their Language and Computer training, adding Accounting and other Administrative skills. During this year some of those who are on a track to become translators will serve as speaking partners to those International students who are taking a parallel two-year Translation Intensive, and will begin to work in small teams on translation work. By the third year, Sanskrit, Poetry, Grammar, and Calligraphy, as well as Teacher/ Leader training will be added to their range of skills.
TRANSLATION TEAM MEMBERS
Eventually the interconnections between the monk-translators and their International counterparts will become more formalized into working translation teams. We plan to train at least five of these working translation teams, for the important in-house translation work that has been part of IBA’s vision from the beginning. Those International scholars who enter the Translation Intensive will be staying here at the same time as the monks, beginning in the monks’ second year.
WHEN WILL THE MONKS BE AT IBA? & WHAT ABOUT THE SUMMER PROGRAM ?
The monks will study here at IBA in eight-month segments, from October to May. In June, the IBA’s annual three and a half months of Philosophy and Practice courses takes place, with students coming from all over the world to receive the finest in-depth teachings of Classic Indian Mahayana texts.
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