Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Course meetings: nominally 2 hours / session, 1 or 2 sessions / week, although precise times vary from session to session.

Sessions include lectures, discussion group sessions, and leadership lunches.

This partial term course meets on an irregular schedule during the first 11 weeks of the 15 week semester.

Course Learning Objectives

Students work in a seminar environment to enhance their leadership capabilities. An initial Leadership Laboratory Outward Bound experience builds trust, teamwork and communications. Readings and assignments emphasize the characteristics of effective leadership. Distinguished leaders participate in the "Leadership Lunch" story-telling series to share their experiences and to provide recommendations. Discussions help explore and further probe leadership development. The learning experience culminates in a personal leadership plan.

This course is a required experience for first-year students in the Technology and Policy Program (TPP). Upon completing the seminar course, as TPP students you should be better able to:

  • Assess leadership characteristics in a variety of professional and social environments.
  • Analyze and reflect on instances of leadership in your everyday lives.
  • Articulate and communicate a personal leadership vision that is goal-oriented.
  • Synthesize a personal blueprint or check-list for action (your personal leadership plan).

This course is designed to rely heavily on your personal experiences and contributions. With that in mind, we expect that you will show up, participate and help create a meaningful first-semester experience for your cohort.

Course Structure, Deliverables & Grading

We will use prepared lectures only to structure discussions and activities. Our time together includes a few classroom based sessions, an immersive outdoor Leadership Laboratory retreat experience (Thompson Island / Outward Bound), Leadership Lunches, and small group discussion sections.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES DELIVERABLES
Assess, Analyze & Reflect Assignments 1–2: Thompson Island (TI), Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), DiSC assessment
Articulate, Communicate & Synthesize Assignments 3-4: Personal vision speech & personal leadership plan

Required and optional readings are intended to spur thoughtful discussion. Although the course is offered pass-fail (P / D / F), the course deliverables are weighted as follows in determining your grade:

ASSIGNMENTS / ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Assignment 1: MFA, TI analyze & reflect 15
Assignment 2: DiSC assessment 15
Assignment 3: Vision: Elevator Speech 20
Assignment 4: Personal leadership plan 30
Discussion 20