The courses offered in PLC are instructed with the intention of developing your leadership abilities and widening your perspective throughout your undergraduate career. Each class will draw upon lessons you have learned in previous PLC courses. Below you will find course descriptions for all the courses offered by PLC. Beyond the first year in the program, you can design your PLC pathway to best fit your schedule.
(3 credits; meets General Education Social Sciences requirement; offered in the fall) PRLC 1810 introduces students to fundamental principles of leadership. The course will further hone and develop not only an understanding of leadership theory, but an ability to apply theory in real-world contexts. Central to the course are PLC’s competencies, including: academic and professional excellence, critical thinking and analysis, creativity, implementation, ethical reasoning, and community impact. Over the course of the semester, learning will be shaped by classroom lectures, recitation discussions and activities, guest speakers, and assignments. Examples of course assignments could include case studies, research papers, memos, group work, and oral presentations.
(3 credits; meets General Education Social Sciences requirement; offered in the spring) In PRLC 1820, students will be pushed to go further into the discovery of leadership applications based on leadership theory learned in PRLC 1810. The course is structured around 5-6 core topics based on current events and cohort interest/backgrounds. In these units, students are expected to draw from learnings in PRLC 1810, apply theory, and formulate positions and arguments. There is ample opportunity to explore leadership in relation to these complex, social topics. As in PRLC 1810, learning will be shaped by classroom lectures, recitation discussions and activities, guest speakers, and assignments. Examples of course assignments could include case studies, research papers, memos, group work, and oral presentations.
(3 credits; offered in the fall) PRLC 2820 is designed to put your learning process into hyper-drive. Building on 1810 and 1820’s foundation of inquiry, communication and collaboration skills, PRLC 2820 moves at a challenging pace of weekly cycles of research, analysis, critique and revision. You will choose a topic—a “complex social problem”—of interest and academic importance to you. Throughout the semester, the topic is scrutinized each week through different “lenses”, from illuminating how it manifests at the level of the individual human being, to how it is perceived in different cultures, to how it relates to complex global systems. Each lens requires not only new research conducted by different methods (e.g. secondary research, interviews) but also an expression of analysis by different modes (e.g. written narratives, visual models, oral presentations).
(3 credits; offered in the spring and sometimes Maymester) ENLP 3100 fulfills the same PLC completion requirement as PRLC 2820. ENLP 3100 approaches leadership as a process of inquiry, empathy, and action, cultivating skills leaders need to understand, communicate about, and generate innovative approaches to complex issues. Each student conducts extensive, principled research about a complex social issue of their choice, investigating its multidimensionality by applying different analytic lenses. Instructor consent required for students not in Engineering Leadership. Preference is given to PLC engineering students, however, all PLC students are invited to take the course, especially during Maymester. Email Professor Angela Thieman-Dino for consent. Click here for a longer description of the course authored by the professor.
(3 credits; fulfills PRLC 3810/3800 requirement) This course will be delivered with an emphasis on research, writing, and multi-modal communication. Students will select a complex social issue (a wicked problem) of interest to them at the international level and spend the term using an analytical and inquiry-based lens. In the course, students will assess the root causes of the problem, examine leadership failures and successes, and consider and evaluate possible interventions and solutions. Students will be exposed to academic research, review relevant policies, and interface with field experts. Learning will be assessed through a variety of mechanisms including written work, peer teaching, and case studies.
(3 credits; fulfills PRLC 3810/3800 requirement; you must apply to and be accepted into CU in DC program) In this course, we will examine the intersections of science, policy, funding, government, and society. The Science Policy course is highly experiential, and will include visits with policy makers on Capitol Hill; interaction with scientific societies and organizations in the D.C. metro area; and visits to significant science labs, at organizations such as NASA, the Department of Energy, and the National Institutes of Health., NIST, etc. (locations will vary from course to course). Students will be expected to be highly engaged and to participate in class discussion and interaction with the guest speakers. This course will inform a student’s understanding of how science is “done” in the United States.
This course can be taken under the following course prefixes and still count for PLC, but using another prefix may help and also count toward your major:
- ARSC-4040, CU in D.C. Science Policy
- MCDB-4100, CU in D.C. Science Policy, Special Topics in MCDB
- PHYS-3000, CU in D.C. Science Policy, Science in Public Policy
- ENVS-3100, CU in D.C. Science Policy, Special Topics in Applied Environmental Science
- ATOC-4500, CU in D.C. Science Policy, Special Topics in ATOC
- PRLC-4010, CU in D.C. Science Policy, Presidents Leadership Class
(3 credits; offered fall semester only) This course examines leadership in a dynamic 21st-century global community. It is designed to help you think broadly about global issues and continue your preparation for leadership positions in business, government, and non-profit organizations. The course is focused on improving your personal leadership skills and emphasizing the importance of always leading consistently with the highest ethical principles and values. The course will involve some leadership and management theories, but throughout it emphasizes how to apply them in the real world. By combining practical examples with theory, the course will provide useful guidelines for you as a leader of the future. Global Issues is organized around seven major global flows: population, energy, security, investment, disease, illegal drugs, and terrorism.
(4 credits; offered spring semester only) This course is thematically structured as an exploration of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. It is designed to introduce you to ways of thinking broadly about global issues as you continue your preparation for leadership positions in your professional, personal and civic pursuits after college. We will focus on improving your awareness of global leadership issues, continuing to focus on the development of your personal leadership code of ethics, and continuing to emphasize the importance of intentionality and critical thinking as part of always leading with the highest ethical principles and values. This course has a global travel component as well and spends between 1 and 2 weeks in a foreign country after the spring semester ends. A considerable extra cost is associated with this course.
(3 credits; fulfills PRLC 3810/3800 requirement) This course will be delivered with an emphasis on research, writing, and multi-modal communication. Students will select a complex social issue (a wicked problem) of interest to them at the international level and spend the term using an analytical and inquiry-based lens. In the course, students will assess the root causes of the problem, examine leadership failures and successes, and consider and evaluate possible interventions and solutions. Students will be exposed to academic research, review relevant policy, and interface with field experts. Learning will be assessed through a variety of mechanisms to include written work, peer teaching, and case studies.
(2 credits; offered in the fall) PRLC 2930 completes the ALE experiential requirement for PLC completion.
(3 credits; offered in the spring) PRLC 4010 completes the ALE experiential requirement but is focused on the student athlete.