President's Leadership Program: Forming Leaders of Tomorrow Today

Michele Hayes
<haye9309@blue.unco.edu>

In the year 2000, John Bromley and donors from the El Pomar Foundation and the Leadership Institute established the University of Northern Colorado's President's Leadership Program. The program would train incoming freshmen in leadership theory and application through required classes, leadership clinics, and activities. The requirements for the participants were created to select a highly diverse and motivated group of students who are accomplished and outgoing in their lives and who have demonstrated leadership skills in the past. The students would participate in a variety of activities ranging from community service projects to attending specific core classes for the program. I was accepted into the President's Leadership Program in the initial year of its establishment, and I have subsequently learned about many qualities and actions required to be a valuable leader. Such characteristics have become apparent through the different training aspects of the program as well as through the leaders introduced to me during the past year.

The program requires the incoming freshmen to take a theory class based upon different traits of leaders and various works written about leadership characteristics. The class taught the participants about the different traits of a variety of leaders who are viewed differently in society. Leaders such as Hitler and Stalin, the Pope and Dalai Lama, as well as ancient philosophers and epic adventurers like Odysseus in The Odyssey, were all studied for significant leadership features. We investigated each leader and how he or she illustrated moral or extreme behavior. We were encouraged to determine which views, beliefs, and criteria of a leader we supported and wished to employ from the ideas we studied. The discoveries each of the students set forth the understanding of leadership in history and promoted our own theories about beneficial leadership qualities in present cultures.

Weekly speakers also volunteered to express their opinions about leadership in the community and the persona required to hold various positions in specific fields of expertise. The speakers were from an array of backgrounds and occupations including businessmen, teachers, and religious leaders. The presenters spoke about experiences with different types of leaders and the qualities each contained. This aided us in the understanding of which qualities are most advantageous, such as motivation, and which qualities are unnecessary, such as being overbearing or critical. When followers lose direction or lack confidence, a leader must take the initiative to motivate the people through encouragement. On the other hand, when a leader is overbearing or critical, followers tend to believe their skills are unnecessary and do not feel like an integral part of the group. Each speaker promoted open-mindedness, responsibility, faith and self-esteem, as well as exemplified good public speaking skills. The traits the orators illustrated taught me about many useful skills I wanted to incorporate into my leadership abilities and utilize in everyday life.

The President's Leadership Program also required that each student remain active in community service and outreach programs. Therefore, involvement in the child-mentoring program Esperando permits each of the students to convey his or her learned abilities to the children participating in the curriculum. The contributions we make to the children teach us servant leadership, or leadership through serving the public, and also allow us to donate our skills to the community in the local area. Esperando educates us, as the young leaders of America, to value our future and family and lets each of us guide others and teach the morals and characteristics we have learned to the children of future generations. We are responsible for the care, education, and aid of the children while they are under our supervision, and we attain the opportunity to educate the participants about opportunities in life and inspire them to succeed.

The many leadership qualities I have learned about through the influence of the President's Leadership Program have taught me about the various techniques and traits a leader may utilize. The study of these qualities has allowed me to enhance my public speaking skills, remain active in the community by serving the public through Esperando, and to learn about leaders in history. Each incidence promotes the growing and maturing of my leadership abilities and increases the knowledge I possess as a young leader in America waiting to lead tomorrow through my actions today.

Academic Exchange Extra invites reader responses to any writings in this issue--especially articles advancing the scholarly debate of issues raised.

Page Viewed:   / Created: January 2002 / Updated: Tuesday, 8 January 2002