Course Meeting Times
Course meetings: nominally 2 hours / session, 1 or 2 sessions / week, although precise times vary from session to session.
Sessions include lectures, discussion group sessions, and leadership lunches.
This partial term course meets on an irregular schedule during the first 11 weeks of the 15 week semester.
Course Learning Objectives
Students work in a seminar environment to enhance their leadership capabilities. An initial Leadership Laboratory Outward Bound experience builds trust, teamwork and communications. Readings and assignments emphasize the characteristics of effective leadership. Distinguished leaders participate in the “Leadership Lunch” story-telling series to share their experiences and to provide recommendations. Discussions help explore and further probe leadership development. The learning experience culminates in a personal leadership plan.
This course is a required experience for first-year students in the Technology and Policy Program (TPP). Upon completing the seminar course, as TPP students you should be better able to:
- Assess leadership characteristics in a variety of professional and social environments.
- Analyze and reflect on instances of leadership in your everyday lives.
- Articulate and communicate a personal leadership vision that is goal-oriented.
- Synthesize a personal blueprint or check-list for action (your personal leadership plan).
This course is designed to rely heavily on your personal experiences and contributions. With that in mind, we expect that you will show up, participate and help create a meaningful first-semester experience for your cohort.
Course Structure, Deliverables & Grading
We will use prepared lectures only to structure discussions and activities. Our time together includes a few classroom based sessions, an immersive outdoor Leadership Laboratory retreat experience (Thompson Island / Outward Bound), Leadership Lunches, and small group discussion sections.
| COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES | DELIVERABLES |
|---|---|
| Assess, Analyze & Reflect | Assignments 1–2: Thompson Island (TI), Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), DiSC assessment |
| Articulate, Communicate & Synthesize | Assignments 3-4: Personal vision speech & personal leadership plan |
Required and optional readings are intended to spur thoughtful discussion. Although the course is offered pass-fail (P / D / F), the course deliverables are weighted as follows in determining your grade:
| ASSIGNMENTS / ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Assignment 1: MFA, TI analyze & reflect | 15 |
| Assignment 2: DiSC assessment | 15 |
| Assignment 3: Vision: Elevator Speech | 20 |
| Assignment 4: Personal leadership plan | 30 |
| Discussion | 20 |
