Two Fayetteville Technical Community College staff members have been selected for the 2025-2027 class of the William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations.
Director of Operations for FTCC’s Student Learning Center Brenda Harris and Director of IT Service Management Cynthia Massie were selected for the class, whose 18 members represent 12 counties in the state.
The Friday Fellowship for Human Relations, named for longtime UNC System President Bill Friday, is the flagship program of Wildacres Leadership Initiative (WLI). The Friday Fellowship is dedicated to fostering relationships across differences and utilizing dialogue to address North Carolina’s most pressing issues.
WLI considers the Fellowship program to be both a central piece of its mission and an example of how to build individual and collective leadership that creates cultures of collaboration throughout the state.
Friday Fellows demonstrate commitment to leadership in North Carolina, model curiosity and continuous learning and are courageous risk-takers seeking to create innovation through their work in the world.
The selection for this prestigious honor involves a months-long process including a formal application, written application, virtual-based conversation and in-person regional interview. The incoming class members will engage in professional and leadership development both individually and collectively throughout the duration of the two-year fellowship cycle. The program is structured over six 4-day seminars and allows for shared experiences across the state.
Before and after each seminar weekend, class members are invited to embrace new and different pathways toward building and sustaining relationships across lines of difference. With human relations at the core of the fellowship’s mission and design, fellows step into relationships with one another while evaluating their power, place and purpose in a changing world.
"Each of these individuals have already made choices to stop, reflect, and step into something not fully known," said Hunter Corn, director of WLI, in a press release. "I am grateful for their choices to intentionally be in relationship with those different from themselves. It is choices like this that strengthen communities."
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