One of Creighton’s newest leadership programs has started to take shape.
In coordination with the Student Activities Office, the Emerging Leaders Program took off last week with its first session on Feb. 3. The program is aimed at potential leaders and attempts to focus on applying those leadership skills in an everyday-life setting.
“The Emerging Leaders Program is about developing students into being strong leaders, especially ethically speaking,” said Katie Wadas, assistant director for leadership in the Student Activities Office.
Spanning over a five-week period, the ELP meets on Wednesday afternoons in a classroom-like setting to help guide students for greater leadership potential.
“The ELP takes its lessons from Chris Lowney’s book, “Heroic Leadership,” which is based off of Jesuit values,” Wadas said.
Having the Jesuit philosophy as a background, the discussions often come back to themes of service and decisions in relation to others. In the core of Lowney’s book lie his four pillars of leadership: self-awareness, ingenuity, love (cura personalis) and heroism. The first session of the program was an introduction to each student’s background, while the four subsequent sessions focus on how they can apply their own skills to each of the four pillars, Wadas said.
The sessions consist of lectures but they mainly serve as guidelines. The rest of the time is spent focusing on group activities where students learn and reflect about their strengths and weaknesses and how they can better their skills for a leadership role.
The program is open to sophomores and juniors, Wadas said, and caters to students who have been at Creighton for at least one year but still have a considerable amount of time left to a gain a leadership role.
Eric Immel, assistant director for Greek life, is starting a similar program for Greeks.
“It is focused on personal as well as organizational development and is another opportunity beyond what chapters and organizations offer,” Immel said.
Nominations are made through the executive members of the chapters on campus to identify members with potential for leadership within their own organization. In addition to the Greek program, the SAO is also partnering with the Pharmacy and Health Professions schools to create a program specific to the leadership roles of health students, Wadas said.
The ELP is working toward building better student leaders, helping them develop both short-term and long-term goals with a little Jesuit kick.
“The end goal is for the students to understand their leadership through a Jesuit lens,” Wadas said. “Creighton students are typically found in many organizations. With this program, they can hopefully get to know themselves better so they can be better leaders themselves.”
Students are already finding benefits within the program. Arts & Sciences sophomore Matt Metivier sees it as an opportunity to better develop his vocal leadership.
“It is also a very diverse group of people, which is always good,” Metivier said.
While you have to be recommended to get into the program, you can find more information about it by sending an email to [email protected]