Applied Leadership Experience (ALE)

PLC views the Applied Leadership Experience (ALE) as leadership in action – an opportunity to further leadership development through real-world encounters. This leadership development has two main pillars:  the experiences you choose and the intentional planning and reflecting process you go through to evaluate your progress.  The ALE is unique to PLC, and one of our long-standing hallmarks (formally Walkabout Intensives).

As a PLC student, you will complete two ALEs, one lower-division (100+ hours) and one upper-division (250+ hours), over the course of your tenure in the program. An Applied Leadership Experience is any long-term, non-classroom based experience enhanced by a prescribed process that requires a advisor/supervisor, student-articulated goals and expectations, specified methodologies to reach those goals and expectations, and a reporting schedule for accountability.

What Counts as an Applied Leadership Experience?

ALEs can be a wide variety of experiences, from starting your own business to volunteering at a hospice center and many things in between. Regardless, for the experience to qualify as an ALE, it must meet these basic requirements:

1. The experience is 100+ hours in length for lower-division, but no more than one full year; 250+ hours in length for lower-division, but no more than one full year
2. Directly enhances your academic and/or professional and/or leadership growth
3. Lower-Division should be focused on observing, learning, and reflecting on leadership
4. Upper-division ALE should have a prescribed leadership component where you can articulate how you are leading in the context of your experience

Past ALE Examples

• Engineering internship with Sierra Nevada
• Managing Editor of the Colorado Engineer Magazine
• Peace and Reconciliation research in South Africa
• Trip Leader with PLC’s Applied Leadership Wilderness Course
• Research assistant at the National Institute of Standards
• President of the CU Triathlon Team
• First Year Class Advisor; Assistant Director of Recruitment & Selection
• Resident Hall Advisor

How to Start an ALE

PLC students can start a lower-division ALE after the spring semester of their freshmen year. At the start of your spring semester, you will be provided further details on how the ALE process works. You will also get to experience two ALE Symposiums where PLCers present on their upper-division ALE opportunities. This will get you thinking and excited for your first ALE. Please read the ALE Handbook to familiarize yourself with the ALE lingo we use and the process.

Email ALE Coordinator, Halley Herbst, to schedule a meeting time

Read the ALE Handbook

Applied Leadership Experience Testimonials

"Since my first semester freshman year, I have admired the Class Advisors (CAs). I loved my CA’s ability to make each individual feel valued, welcomed, and cared for. Having the chance to be a CA for my Upper Division Applied Leadership Experience (ALE) was a great opportunity to create this environment for a new group of freshman. It was helpful to have the ALE program to guide my experience as a CA and allow me to reflect on my role within PLC and allowed me to set and reach my goals as a CA effectively. Most importantly, I genuinely loved spending time with the freshman students. Watching each of them grow and learn how to live away from their parents while juggling school and new friendships was one of my favorite parts of the year."

"I spent the summer between my junior and senior year in Cleveland working as an investment banking summer analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets. The upper-division ALE guidelines did an excellent job of helping me establish personal development and leadership goals at the beginning of the summer to which I could hold myself accountable at the end of the internship experience. Working in a demanding setting, I had to constantly reflect on and improve my work. I realized how vital it is to understand not only myself as a leader, but also as a follower. In the world of finance, like many other professions, trustworthy and effective followers get tasked with increased responsibility. Anyone looking to use a professional internship as an upper division ALE should know that a regular loop of effective goal setting, feedback and self-reflection can help you markedly increase your job performance, value to your team and leadership qualities."

"For my Upper Division Applied Leadership Experience (ALE), I took on the role the Program Manager for the Nepal team of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) at the University of Colorado. My responsibilities included team management/assignment of team structure and roles, enforcing proper communication within the team and between stakeholders, pushing the team to pursue the goals that fit our team an organization, and meeting those goals.  I have gained immense confidence in my ability to lead a large team of diverse individuals with a leadership style that I was previously unsure would translate to success. Thisposition has easily been one of the most influential experiences I have had during my time at the university and it has given me the confidence to rise to the next leadership challenge."

“For my upper-division Applied Leadership Experience, I worked as an intern for Experience Mission, a Christian mission organization, leading three months of mission trip teams on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. This experience was deeply meaningful because I was able to develop as a stronger leader in areas like managing conflict and encouraging the growth of cross-cultural relationships, all while pursuing an opportunity in religious nonprofit and international development work, two areas that I hope to integrate into a future career. Interning with this particular organization within the PLC ALE framework allowed me to grow personally as a leader who will be effective and impactful in the areas where I am most passionate. By living, learning, and working within the Navajo community, I became a more adaptive and relationship-focused leader, and I hope to continue to develop these skills throughout the rest of my education and in my future career.”