Educating University Students for Engaged Leadership

Abstract

ABSTRACT Colleges and universities have responsibility to educate and train students in order to provide them with various skills that will have applicability to their adult lives and will contribute to and impact society. While there is a continuous debate about which skills should be emphasized, leadership continually comes up as useful and necessary. As more and more programming around leadership development is created, which definition of leadership is being promoted and do these programs, in fact, result in the development of leadership skills? This study is an examination of the Meinig Family Cornell National Scholars program at Cornell University in the context of servant leadership. Through the use of student reflections on their leadership learnings, it becomes possible to demonstrate skills acquisition related to engaged leadership, with implications for future application in the real world. In all, 75% (117) of graduating students from the Meinig Scholars program shared their views about skills development as a result of their time within the program and at Cornell. An association appears between program participation and operating as active and compassionate citizens; ethical actors aware of their impact on others; with a commitment to collaborative process and action; as interculturally competent; with understanding and accepting across difference; and as reflective learners and practitioners - all of which are outcomes suggested by various theories on leadership as well as those promoted by Cornell’s proposal for Leadership for the Greater Good.