Two Troy residents named 2019 New Leaders Council Fellows

ALBANY, N.Y. >> The Capital District – NY New Leaders Council (NLC) recently announced the selection of two Troy residents as 2019 NLC Fellows.

NLC said Linden Horvath and Maira Della Pia will be 2019 NLC Fellows.

Horvath and Della Pia will join 20 Fellows throughout the Capital Region this winter and spring in skills-based pieces of training to prepare them to be change makers of the future.

“Capital District – NY New Leaders Council is proud to announce Linden Horvath and Maira Della Pia as 2019 Fellows, adding to our growing cohort of local changemakers and community members,” Jason Chura, Co- chair of Capital District – NY New Leaders Council said in a news release. “Through the NLC Institute, this cohort will develop the training and skills to make real and systemic change in our community.”

Horvath is the Development Coordinator at Capital Roots (a green space and food access nonprofit operating in the Capital Region of New York) where she writes and manages grants for 12 programmatic areas, in addition to coordinating donor management efforts, according to the release.

Della Pia is a recent graduate of Binghamton University, having received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering in 2015. For three years, she worked as a Mechanical and Service Engineer for International Electronic Machines Corporation (IEM), a small engineering firm producing precision measurement equipment for the transportation industry, the release said.

Officials said Horvath and Della Pia will join the national class of over 800 fellows in 50 NLC chapters across the coun-

try.

Nationally, officials said the 2019 Fellows are representative of the nation’s most diverse generation, self-identifying as 60 percent nonwhite, 62 percent female, and 18 percent LGBTQIA.

“New Leaders Council fellows and alumni are the bright and progressive future of our country. NLC community members are running for elected office, managing campaigns, working in government, running nonprofits, and starting small businesses; and it all began with the NLC Institute,” Mark Riddle, President of New Leaders Council, said in the release. “These 816 new Fellows will make their impact on our communities, our states and our country in

the years to come.”

Officials noted that the NLC Institute is a six-month training program focused on skills training on issues such as entrepreneurial goal setting, strategic communications, and digital outreach, economics, finance and fundraising, management and coalition building, progressive policy, and diversity and inclusion.

The release said that chosen fellows went through a rigorous, locally- driven selections process including an application with an essay component and an inperson interview. Nearly 25 percent of those who applied to the Institute were accepted nationally.

NLC Fellows are paired with a mentor who is a professional in their field.

Through the mentorship program, the release said that Fellows are exposed to successful individuals who are committed to support-

ing the next generation of progressive leaders. Capital District - NY NLC mentors represent local leaders in the Capital Region including business owners, local elected officials, and community activists.

Officials said NLC Fellows are civic, social, and business entrepreneurs who lead the charge on the ground to solve the most critical challenges facing local communities. NLC’s Capstone Project, a cor-

nerstone of our Institutes, challenges Fellows to identify a project that captures their passion, fills a need in the community, and leverages the skills NLC provides through the Fellowship in order to come up with a plan to address it head- on.

Capital District - NY NLC graduated its first group of Fellows in 2012 and has since provided skillsbased, leadership training for nearly 100 fellows.

Their alumni are stu- dents, non-profit leaders, lawyers, advocates, social workers, engineers, parents, teachers, community activists, business owners, local elected officials, and future candidates. Capital District - NY NLC is also supported by a robust Advisory Board of Capital Region community and business leaders, according to the release.

Once this class of Fellows completes the Institute in June 2019, they will join NLC’s robust alumni network of nearly 8,000 change-makers nationwide.