Leadership Orange, an eight-session program launched by the Orange Chamber of Commerce more than 30 years ago, gives participants an inside look at how critical city departments work, with behind-the-scenes tours and the chance to talk to agency and institution leaders.
As a program partner, Santiago Canyon College hosts one of these sessions, explaining to participants how the community college functions and the goals that drive its faculty and staff.
Anyone can sign up for the program, and its main purpose is to “expose possible upcoming community leaders — no matter what their field — to leadership from actual leaders who are running operations throughout the city,” said Rick Martinez, chair of the Orange Chamber of Commerce and a retired public information officer with the Anaheim Police Department. He and his wife, Rebecca, have coordinated the Leadership Orange program for the last three years.
For instance, Martinez explained, the program provides an experiential understanding of the workings of city government in a day when participants take on roles in a mock city council meeting with the mayor.
The sessions are surprising and enlightening for most everyone who signs up, said Martinez. “Nowadays, everybody’s quick to complain about everything, but here they get to see how things actually work,” he added.
Each year, about 20 people sign up for the Leadership Orange program; the fee is $800.
Program participants also visit the city of Orange water division, a department few people are aware of or understand what it does. “It’s really fascinating to see how the water is delivered to the houses and businesses and what it takes to maintain that,” Martinez said.
Tours of local hospitals and schools within the Orange Unified School District are also on the program agenda, where participants get to see how food services make and deliver meals to schools and how scores of buses are organized to bring children to and from their schools.
Rebecca Martinez, the former principal of El Modena High School and currently an adjunct professor at Chapman University, had the idea to include Santiago Canyon College in the session about higher education, which also features a visit to Chapman University.
This addition has been a success, according to the couple. “Santiago Canyon College goes above and beyond,” said Rick Martinez. “They take us to a large lecture hall, and the different department heads come and explain what they offer to the community and even to the business community by providing workforce development. It’s one of those eye-opening experiences where people are just amazed at what that college is doing.”
community leaders within the City of Orange. Sessions cover the history of Orange, city
government, public safety, health and human services, education and transportation. (Photo courtesy of RSCCD Communications)
Last year, Jason Parks, Santiago Canyon College vice president of Academic Affairs, completed the Leadership Orange program to learn more about the city. As an Anaheim resident who’d worked mostly in the Inland Empire, Parks felt that since he was now working at SCC, he needed to understand more about Orange. He and his fellow participants, many of whom were already working in leadership roles, “were always looking at how we can help grow the community, the city, our programs, our organizations,” he said.
And that is one goal of Leadership Orange, Martinez said. “We want people to get involved in their communities.”
Nonprofit organizations such as The Hub, HomeAid and Community Foundation of Orange are an important part of Orange, so they, too, are included in the Leadership Orange program, Martinez said. Parks said he particularly enjoyed visiting places he’d never known much about, such as the Ronald McDonald House.
He also appreciated learning how the fire and police departments operate as well as local hospitals such as CHOC and Providence. “That whole ecosystem is much more complex than I had initially known,” he said.
Reflecting on his experience with Leadership Orange, Parks said, “I learned the uniqueness of the city of Orange.” He also made friends with other participants, and networking is an intended component of the program, according to Martinez. Orange Mayor Dan Slater once participated in the program, as did retired police chief and city manager Tom Kisela and many local business owners who’ve become leaders in the city.
“The program builds community and hopefully future leaders for our city,” Rebecca Martinez said. “I think it really is a great networking focus for businesses or people who don’t have their own business. We’ve heard people say the friendships that they’ve made, the networking, the knowledge about their city that they did not know behind the scenes, made them feel even more proud, not only to run their business here, but to be a community member of this wonderful city.”