The Certificate in Leadership Studies equips students with practical leadership skills they can apply immediately in academics, careers, and community settings. Through hands-on coursework in conflict management, negotiation, decision-making, and team dynamics, students develop the confidence and tools needed to lead effectively in complex, real-world situations.
Open to students of any major, the program requires no application and can be started in the first year.
What You’ll Gain
Students completing the Certificate in Leadership Studies will:
- Learn conflict and negotiation skills through dynamic tag-team negotiations and live simulations
- Gain self-awareness as a leader through videotaped analysis and personalized coaching from senior students
- Practice professional communication in face-to-face negotiations with peers and seasoned professionals
- Lead real projects by designing and executing team-based leadership projects
- Build transferable skills valued in business, public service, and non-profit leadership
Program Overview
Required Courses in Leadership Studies
5 Classes, 20 credits. The Certificate in Leadership Studies prepares students to engage in practical and effective leadership through a combination of theory, skill-building and experiential learning with the aim of engaging in the world in a meaningful way.
BLI 210: CONFLICT, FEEDBACK, AND CHANGE (4)
This course employs an understanding of leadership from diverse voices and leaders working to foster change in systems. Students are invited to work on a goal for personal leadership. Topics of study will incorporate change, theories, negotiation, and feedback. Open to first year students. Offered both terms.
BLI 220: DECISION-MAKING STRATEGIES FOR TEAMS AND PROJECTS (4)
This course offers tools for improving decisions in professional and personal contexts. Students practice making decisions in teams while designing and implementing small-scale projects to benefit a population and need of their choice. Open to first year students. Offered both terms.
BLI 471: THE ART OF NEGOTIATION AND FEEDBACK IN SUPERVISION (4)
In this capstone course to the certificate program, students explore contemporary work in leadership studies highlighting diverse voices working towards change, and extend their practice of negotiation and feedback. Students set individual goals and objectives in designing final projects which may include the mentoring of BLI students or the crafting of a leadership paper with a unique application to a field of their personal interest. Pre-requisites: BLI 210 or BLI 220. Offered both terms.
LEADERSHIP SEMINARS (2 FROM LIST)
BLI 230: INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP (4)
Effective leaders seek to genuinely engage everyone in their organizations. They see the diverse experiences and characteristics of community members as assets, thereby fostering belonging and contributing to organizational success. This course explores research on inclusive leadership, cultural humility, and psychological safety; introduces practices that create more inclusive teams and organizations; and emphasizes the development of skills that support inclusive leadership in a variety of settings. Activities will include self-assessments, case study analysis, role plays, and personal reflection.
For descriptions of the following seminars, go to the designated department section of the catalogue.
- ARTH/CLAS 261: Ancient Art
- ART/DANC/FILM/MUS/THEA 175: Introduction to the Study of Arts Administration
- ART/DANC/FILM/MUS/THEA 276: Philanthropy and the Arts
- ARTH/CLAS 355: Advanced Topics in Ancient Art – Pompeii and Herculaneum
- BIOL/ES 357: Conservation Biology
- BIOL 471: Senior Seminar
- BUS 100: Introduction to Business
- BUS 223: Business Law and Ethics
- BUS 252: Organizational Behavior
- BUS 263: International Business
- BUS/ECON 266: International Finance
- BUS 349: Corporate Finance
- BUS 474: Senior Seminar in Strategic Management
- COMM 225: Public Speaking
- COMM 238: Argumentation and Advocacy
- COMM 270: Intercultural Communication
- COMM 316: Contemporary Public Communication
- COMM 327: Communication and Technology
- COMM 343: Organizational Communication
- DANC 240: Imaginative Thinking: Moving and Crafting I
- DANC 340: Imaginative Thinking, Moving and Crafting II
- ECON 386: Managerial Economics
- EDUC 141: Schooling in American Society
- ENG 132: Folk and Fairy Tales
- ENG 284: The Beat Generation
- ENG 333: Shakespeare’s Women
- ENG 358: Literature of the African Diaspora
- ES/GWS 219: Food, Culture, and Social Justice
- ES/ INTL 210: World Geography
- ES/PHYS 225: Energy and the Environment
- ES 470: Environmental Studies Capstone Seminar
- FILM 281: Video Production
- FILM 334: Directing for Film
- FREN 324: Introduction to French & Francophone Women Writers
- FREN 470: Senior Seminar
- GWS 141: Introduction to Gender & Women’s Studies
- GWS 209/PHIL 208: Feminist Philosophies
- GWS/HIST 225: Women in Early Modern Europe
- GWS 226/HIST 226: Women and Gender in Modern Europe
- GWS/HIST 334: Sex and Race in the Age of Empire
- HIST 155: Hitler and the Holocaust
- HIST 221: Civil Rights Movement in America
- HIST 265: African-American History Since 1865
- HIST 318: American Colonial History
- INTL/POLS 262: Government and Politics in Africa
- POLS/INTL 332 Currents of Marxist Thought
- LAT 227: Epistolary Latin
- PHYS 201/202: Analytical Physics I & II
- POLS 102: Introduction to International Relations
- POLS 255: Conquest
- POLS 363: Constitutional Law
- PSY 215: Motivation and Emotion
- PSY 361: Theory & Research in Clinical/Counseling Psychology
- PSY 470: Senior Seminar
- SOC 110: Introduction to Sociology
- SPAN 327: Hispanic Women
- THEA 161: Acting Dynamics
- THEA 363: Directing
