The University of Colorado Boulder is sharpening its focus on leadership, offering a thriving minor, a speaker series launching next month with a visit by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and new courses aimed at fostering leadership in students with a diverse array of backgrounds and career paths.
CU Boulder in 2014 launched a new Leadership Studies Minor designed to reach across all colleges, complement any academic major and be open to any undergraduate. Today nearly 400 students – from artists and dancers to physicists and future physicians — are pursuing it. To manage the rapid growth of the program, now housed in the School of Education, CU Boulder recently hired a new program director and is adding course sections to keep class sizes small.
Today’s effective leaders are “less hero” and “more host,” less “all-powerful knower and manager” and more “facilitator who is attentive to people’s needs and recognizes leadership as a process of shared visioning,” said Kira Pasquesi, program director and an instructor for the leadership minor.
Courses for the 16-credit minor cover everything from leadership theory to the exploration of benevolent and toxic governmental leaders across the globe and throughout history and the value of good writing in affecting change. Students also put their leadership lessons to work via partnerships with community organizations.
“You don’t have to serve in a leadership position specifically to be a leader, but you do need to believe that you can affect change,” says Lakshmi Karamsetti, pictured, senior majoring in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and minoring in leadership studies.
Learn more about the Leadership Studies Minor and the speaker series, beginning Wednesday, Jan. 25 with Secretary Gates, in this CU Boulder Today article.