Harris Voices: Amilcar Guzman, CLA'24, on an Education Inside and Outside the Classroom

As a part of Harris Public Policy's and the Center for Effective Government’s celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the Civic Leadership Academy (CLA), we asked previous fellows how CLA has impacted their work as civic leaders. These are their opinions and perspectives, informed by their own life experiences and worldviews (and do not necessarily reflect the views of Harris).

On a hot summer’s day in June of 2022, I arrived in Chicago. I had just spent nearly 15 years living and working in Washington, D.C. and was starting all over. I was scared. I was unsure about what the future held for me or if I would be successful in this new daunting city. As a first-generation son of Dominican immigrants, my biological and chosen families have always been central to how I draw strength to continue in the fight. Through the Civic Leadership Academy (CLA), I’ve found a new chosen family in Chicago and honed the skills for my continued success.

As a Fellow, I learned just as much outside the classroom as I did inside the classroom. Being introduced to a multitude of leadership theories allowed me to further understand what it actually means to be a civic leader. These foundational concepts, where later supplemented through seminal texts such as Machiavelli’s The Prince and Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, allowed me to apply my understanding of leadership in situational contexts. During my Global Practicum in Paris, we took our leadership learnings and applied them to an international setting. Through discussions with leaders in the health and education sectors and those preparing for the 2024 Summer Olympics, we learned about the pressing issues facing a world-class city like Paris.

Throughout it all, I engaged in deep conversations with my Fellows about the problems facing Chicago now and in the coming years. More importantly, we discussed the kinds of leaders we would need to be to address many of these challenges. Leaders who are solutions-based and driven by a bold vision, high levels of integrity and deep empathy.

As a member of the newest graduating class of CLA, I am already implementing the lessons I learned through my experience. Through my work in philanthropy, I seek to ensure that more families have the supports they need to thrive. Core to this effort is the ability to track progress across time. CLA showed me that it is important to question how do we define progress? How do we measure success? Are there alternative ways to track progress? These are all questions that I’ve seriously started to grapple with after my CLA experience. In these early stages as a CLA Alum, I have already started to draw on my chosen family as resources to help me figure out these questions.

The impact of CLA on the Chicago is vast and far reaching. Before participating in CLA, friends described it a program that was developing the civic infrastructure of Chicago. I can see that is indeed the case as CLA Alum are leading in some of the most prominent roles across government and philanthropy.

When I look back on my CLA experience, the Spanish proverb “dime con quién andas, y te diré quién eres (tell me who you’re with and I’ll tell you who you are)” comes to mind. I am standing with leaders destined to make continued change in Chicago and beyond.