OUR PROGRAM

The Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program is a two-year, comprehensive leadership program purposed to empower students to discover their potential and develop their skills as leaders. The program aims to enhance student learning and development in areas of self-knowledge and leadership competence through various workshops, teambuilding exercises, roundtable discussions, reflective activities, and service.

  • We embrace and are guided by the following tenets of leadership:

    • All students are potential leaders

    • Leadership is collaborative

    • Leadership is a process instead of a formal position

    • Community involvement/service is a powerful vehicle for developing a student’s leadership skills and knowledge

    • Leadership is concerned with effecting change on behalf of others and society

The program consists of two tiers:

  1. Personal Responsibility and Development (Tier 1)

  2. Group Application and Community Connections (Tier 2)

“Why should I join LEAD?”

OUR HISTORY

In an effort to collaborate and begin identifying the needs and interests of our student body, a leadership education survey was distributed to organization presidents and a number of first-year students during the summer of 2012. The survey not only inquired about leadership confidence and topic popularity, but also allowed for students to express interest in participating and/or nominating their peers to participate in a pilot program for the 2012-13 academic year.

Fall Term 2012: Forty-four students opted into a workshop-based pilot program. Topics included: leadership styles, communication, leadership language (resumes & interviews), building trust and motivation, dealing with conflict, transition, and group process. The final workshop was to be based on ethics and leadership.

Winter Term 2013: Students in the pilot program provided positive feedback about the workshop material; however, there was little to no consistency amongst student participation. With the onset of a new term, the pilot program was discontinued and roundtable discussions were scheduled. A select group of students, with an interest in developing a comprehensive leadership program, began to explore:

  • how Washington and Lee students define leadership.

  • the student perception of 'leadership development' (ie: is this innate or should there be a learned experience in place).

  • elements of leadership education vs. development, experiences, etc.

  • reasonable resources and program expectations.

Summer and Fall Term 2013: The evaluation of leadership education continued and a tiered programmatic approach was outlined. The Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program was ready for further review.

Winter Term 2014: Two students (David Heinen '16 and AnnMarie Wakely '15) presented the existing concepts for the new LEAD Program to approximately 40 first-year and sophomore students, and then ran an application process to select a LEAD Team of eight (including themselves).

Spring Term 2014: The LEAD Team was created and they committed to spend one full academic year crafting the remaining elements of the program, as well as a marketing plan. The team went on an overnight retreat to begin the process of developing a shared base knowledge of leadership.

Summer 2014: The LEAD Team spent the summer exploring leadership through text (True North by Bill George and other articles) and video (TED talks). Each team member wrote a memo and later participated in a group discussion about the summer reading.

Fall Term 2014 - Winter Term 2015: The LEAD Team met on a weekly basis to continue creating a homegrown, comprehensive and intentional leadership program that:

  • is founded on the idea that leadership can be learned.

  • facilitates the development of a personal leadership philosophy.

  • aids students in identifying and developing leadership potential, emphasizing self-awareness and values.

  • challenges students to incorporate theory and principles into organizational practice.