Eastern Michigan University has a new minor coming this fall called interdisciplinary leadership, which is set to expand knowledge and personal awareness skill sets in hopes of creating a worldly and organized student upon graduation.
The minor focuses on five areas: leadership, global context and cultural competency, ethical leadership, communication and experiential electives. This minor consists of 24 credit hours.
Until now Central Michigan University was the only school in Michigan to offer an undergraduate leadership program. With this addition to the curriculum, EMU administration hopes more students will choose to attend EMU.
“Adding the leadership minor was critical because leadership is a skill that our students seek to develop during their time in college,” said John Feldkamp, Associate Director of EMU Honors College. “The minor adds the theoretical insight to complement the daily practices our students pursue.”
During the June 10 Board of Regents meeting, EMU approved the course plan. Now the EMU community is looking to get the word out on the new opportunity. With the help of word of mouth by the Twitter hashtag #EMUlead, the student body will be able to find out about this rare opportunity.
“This minor will greatly impact students in a variety of ways,” said Desmond Miller, EMU Student Government President. “I believe a leadership minor could help in different areas from business, entrepreneurship, political science, and especially higher education majors.”
The Department of Leadership and Counseling wants to encourage students to “Discover a leader in you.” Not only will students get the chance to expand their skill sets by developing global and national skills and competence, it will help create ethical development and strengthen the communication skills with students, who today live in a high tech and social media driven world.
“I think it’s imperative to have a class that focuses on leadership skills because it will properly shape students to be effective leaders in their personal lives, career, as well as their community,” said Brandon Terrell, EMU student and Chapter Leader of Students for Education Reform.
Many Ivy League schools like Harvard have already implemented programs like this. On a smaller scale, it will help students communicate properly and effectively with each other, as well as the world.
“These classes could essentially build a pipeline that connects students directly with involvement around campus”, said Tiran Burrell, EMU student and Alpha Phi Alpha President.
With this hands-on training offered to the entire campus rather than just business students the school hopes to impact their curriculum content further and create a more global appeal to a degree with the EMU title.
