The Institute for Civic Leadership ( ICL) is an educational not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to provide student leaders with the skills, training, and opportunities to make positive changes in their local and global communities by following the mantra of:

"Inspire, Educate, Take Action."

The ICL dares students and teachers to dream of a better world, while giving them tools and the courage to take risks to put knowledge into action. This goal means that young people need to take public service and the democratic process seriously. They need to become more knowledgeable about current events, world affairs, and the effects of the media in their lives. Finally, young people need to see that they make a difference in the world while they make a difference in themselves.

In 2001, Stephen Spahn, Chancellor of The Dwight School, founded The Institute for Civic Leadership to encourage civic action and greater cross-cultural awareness among teens from public, private, and parochial schools. While the ICL began to enable students to develop the convictions and skills necessary to stimulate civic action, it took the horrifying events of September 11 to re-energize and expand this original mission. In January 2002, The Institute for Civic Leadership appointed Kirk Spahn as the Executive Director and organized a Dare to Dream Conference, inspiring hundreds of high school students to reach out and participate in the formation of something larger than themselves. The immediate and enthusiastic response to the first Dare to Dream Conference proved that it had struck a nerve in its audience. The positive reports following the conference indicated that across New York City students were eager to make their voices heard, and teachers thirsted for a flexible, dynamic civic leadership program. Thus, ICL expanded its Dare to Dream Conference as an annual event that grows larger both in its size and its impact.