Launching the Atkinson Leadership Program
by Paul Hansen, Ph.D.
March 11, 2026
The Chicago Yacht Club Foundation has been awarded a generous grant to launch a new leadership development program for Chicago youth. For several years, the Foundation has run outreach sailing camps, taught STEM education workshops, and awarded scholarships, but this new program is the first to explicitly connect sailing to personal and professional growth. Funded by the Dr. Arthur J. Atkinson Family Foundation, this new program benefits Chicago youth by leveraging the unique strengths of the Chicago Yacht Club, especially its membership.
Starting this spring, two groups of students will be the inaugural class of the Atkinson Leadership Program. One group, from Girls Inc. of Chicago, will complete a week-long learn-to-sail program at Monroe Station on the Foundation’s J/100s, followed by a series of career readiness and professionalization workshops extending through the summer and into the fall. Workshop topics will include college planning, financial literacy, mock interviews, and guest speakers whose lived experience will help expand students’ understanding of the range of educational and career pathways they will eventually navigate.
The second group of students, from Intrinsic High School, will follow a different schedule. These students will complete a series of preparatory sailing and STEM workshops taught by Foundation staff on-site at their high school, which is a ten minute walk from the club, while waiting for the sailing season to begin. Once the weather improves, these students will learn not just how to sail the J/100s, but how to race them. The Foundation’s instructors–all certified by US Sailing–will compete in the Wednesday evening PHRF races with students as crew. Before and after racing, students will have an opportunity to meet and learn from club members about not just sailing, but also their education and careers. The racing program run in conjunction with Intrinsic High School will culminate in a celebratory event at which several students will be presented with scholarship awards.
Both tracks of the Atkinson Leadership Program are examples of sports-based youth development. At the Chicago Yacht Club Foundation, the underlying idea is that sports can serve as a ladder to personal and professional success. In sports-based youth development, the most important part of the program is often not the sport itself—it’s the people that sport brings together. Sailing is a clear example of a sport that attracts intelligent, resilient, confident people who are not only capable of successfully meeting challenges in their own lives, but who can pass those abilities down to the next generation as well. Just think how many boats in the Race to Mackinac feature multi-generational crews.
The Foundation has grown our community outreach programs at a remarkable pace over the past few years. In 2025, over three thousand young people participated in our sailing, swimming, and STEM education programs, but the Atkinson Leadership Program marks a significant increase in the depth of our commitment to improving the lives of Chicago youth. For this new program to realize its full potential in the coming years, it needs to be an all-hands-on-deck endeavor. The Foundation staff looks forward to working with a wide range of members as this project gets underway.