Reflections on the 2025 Harwood Summit in Philadelphia

Editor's Note: Sherry Oehler brings a background of business experiences and volunteering to her community. With a belief in the power of community collaboration, Sherry is helping to catalyze the DeSoto County Ahead initiative and Digital Access for All's The Gap. Although she lives in Manatee County, learn how her work has brought her deep into the heart of DeSoto.

The 2025 Harwood Summit took place in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center, an area steeped in the history of our nation’s founding. Being there reminded me that the United States is an ongoing experiment. For me, The Summit became both a personal experiment and a deeply meaningful experience.

Rich Harwood, Founder of The Harwood Institute, opened our gathering with a focus word: surrender. My first thought was “give up.” It didn’t feel like a word that deserved much reflection or discussion. Yet as our group shared and listened, its meaning began to evolve. Surrender transformed from an idea of defeat into an invitation: to turn inward so that we might turn outward in a new way. To re-center our center, meeting the coming days and weeks with clarity and courage.

What if the things we hold most tightly are actually holding us back? Letting go can create the space to move forward, to build something new, to lean in more fully, and to experience renewal. We cannot carry old versions of ourselves into the next level. Think about a butterfly; it must release the cocoon to fly. As Leonard Cohen reminds us, “There’s a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” In that light of change, surrender becomes revelation. By softening, we begin to see things as they truly are, allowing growth to emerge where control once ruled.

To be whole, we must integrate the work self and the real self, which is our public purpose and our private truth. Through that integration, we rediscover both agency and shared humanity. The difference between diminished belief and engendered belief lies in openness: one contracts, the other expands.

Spending time with forty-five catalytic guides, coaches, and community leaders from across the country was inspiring. Sharing that space with our two DeSoto County Ahead guides, Eric Hamilton and Karissa Roosa, was a true gift. They embody the get in motion, create ripples, start small to go big spirit that defines the DeSoto County Ahead initiative.

We closed The Summit by writing a personal covenant. I recalled doing this several years ago as part of the Catalytic Guide Program, and I was struck by how much that covenant has evolved and deepened since then. The Harwood Summit reminded me that surrender is not about losing control; rather, it’s about finding alignment. In letting go, we make space for what’s next, for light, for courage, and for the quiet strength to catalyze change that lasts.

I am deeply grateful to The Patterson Foundation for its commitment to learning and investment in meaningful change by embracing new ideas that help us catalyze a constantly changing world.