- Increase their awareness of and participation in leadership roles in the community.
- Learn how to guide their carriers by their Catholic faith with confidence and wisdom.
- Clarify their vision, and be mentored into the next level in their carrier.
- Become a virtuous leader and learn how to influence others positively.
- Become part of an influential network of professionals that share their values and drive for success.
- Be surrounded, meet and learn from Arizona’s top catholic business and community leaders.
- Be part of a project to advance the common, making an impact in the community.
- Have opportunities for professional, personal and spiritual growth, through encouraged introspection.
Most sessions bring together a panel of experts, made up from the top Catholic professionals who are seasoned lay leaders in the Diocese of Phoenix and the state of Arizona.
Several leadership events are available throughout the program. Participation in these events are entirely optional, but complement and enrich the program experience.
Outside the weekly sessions, participants are asked to attend a one-day retreat on a Saturday.
TLI is a five month program beginning in February and continuing through June for 19 weekly sessions. The sessions are on Tuesday nights, from 6-9 P.M. In addition, participants are asked to attend a one-day retreat on a Saturday. The program costs $800, which can be paid in installments.
TLI is a perfect fit for Catholics who comes to Mass regularly but hasn’t really shown much interested in ministry or apostolate work. He or she is focused in a professional career. They are very interested in leadership development from a career standpoint. They identify strongly as Catholics but would rather not commit to much at the parish.
Next to you will be seating other Catholic professionals from different walks of life. They are as eager as you are to become leaders and grow professionally and in faith.
Graduate-level MBA courses have homework with intense reading requirements. You typically prepare for class by reading case studies and preparing answers that pertain to those case studies.
The classes at MBA courses last much longer, and are more challenging to remain engaged with, as each class is held by the same instructor for periods of 8 weeks at the time.
We wouldn’t call them lectures, as they are meant to be fast paced, and interactive. Each presentation last 30 minutes and is followed by a Q&A session.
Each session runs on a Tuesday night, from 6pm to 9pm for 19 weeks.
Day one is orientation day, which is different from all sessions that come after. There are no presenters or Q&A panels here. The facilitator goes over the different parts of the program, expectations and responsibilities of each participant. We close the session with interactions/dynamics meant to allow participants to get to know their peers. Orientation is mandatory.
Sessions are on Tuesday nights from 6-9 P.M. Participants are encouraged to bring a brown-bag lunch. The average session starts with prayer and goes directly into a discussion of the assigned reading for that session. There are lots of exchanges and great interactions between participants here. After that, we hear our first presenter for the day, before going into our first brake. After the break, there are two more presentations, then we take the last break. The final component of the sessions is a Q&A panel with the presenters. Time permitting, there will be interactions/dynamics between participants before the end of the session which always ends in prayer’.
It is our hope that the TLI program won’t take much time away from participants busy personal and professional life. Participants will have to be at 19 weekly session, which last three hours each. In addition to that the only other mandatory activity is the one-day retreat, which takes place on a Saturday from 8 until 5 p.m. There is no homework to take home. But each week throughout the program, participants are assigned light reading prior to each session. An average reading handout is 3 to 5 pages. These is the bulk of the time spent away from home or work for every cohort.
TLI is not really meant for parish staff or parish leaders. TLI is meant to form Catholic leaders whose primary environment is the secular world, so that they can be ambassadors of the Faith outside the circles of the Church.
TLI is the perfect place to send those Catholics who are working professionals, not necessarily interested in ministry or parish work. Through TLI, participants learn how to guide their careers by their Catholic faith. Moreover, TLI graduates turn their professional careers into their apostolate, supporting the mission of the Church and advancing the common good. This is a great place to send Catholics in the professional world to grow in their faith and become Catholic leaders ready to make an impact in the community.
Through a partnership with the University of Mary, completion of the TLI program awards participants 3 credits towards a VL certificate of MBA at the University of Mary.
The time commitment for TLI is significantly less than that of a master’s degree. The program last 5 months, and is comprised of 19 weekly sessions. The commitment is moderate and flexible. It could represent the first step towards someone considering a masters degree, but the reach of the program is much higher than academics. There are both intellectual and a spiritual components to the program in order to form and shape participants in an integral way.
TLI draws professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds. Past cohorts have had a great representation from the legal, legislative, finance, education, health, government, business and non-profit sectors. If you are a professional from any field, in the first to mid stages of your career, a practicing Catholic, you are eligible to apply for TLI.
Ever wonder why so many accomplished, successful people feel empty? Career success, for the sake of success, is not success at all. Everyone has a purpose and a mission. The Tepeyac Leadership Initiative wants to help faithful Catholics discover their mission in life. Parish life is full of activities and wonderful lay associations that can do much to bring about a sense of belonging. But the true call for lay people is to live their faith out in the world. The TLI program is a place for Catholics in the professional world to exercise their gifts and talents, growing professionally and spiritually while also becoming leaders in their community.
While university studies, certifications, and other career advancement opportunities can do a great deal to teach techniques and vital concepts for specific industries, what is not often available is an opportunity to form our minds and hearts to lead with purpose. TLI is primarily meant to help professionals in the early to mid stages of their careers to become leaders, both in their own professional fields and their communities. By applying for admission to TLI and participating in the program, candidates are aspiring to join a new network of solid Catholic professionals ready to accomplish concrete goals for the betterment of themselves, their Church and their communities.
If you are a practicing Catholic with a professional career, the simple answer is yes. TLI was designed to help Catholic working professionals, from all fields, to discover a driving force for success in their professional, personal and spiritual lives through their Catholic faith. The program leverages the wisdom of seasoned Catholic leaders in order to guide participants in aspiring to leadership in their professional fields and the community. This leadership program sets itself apart from the rest by approaching leadership in an integral way and by drawing from 2000 years of principles and wisdom found in the Catholic faith. TLI can help take your faith out of the pews and into the world.