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The Leadership Development Program (LDP) at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU) is a two-year undergraduate experiential leadership development program. Since inception 15 years ago, the LDP has a 100 percent post-graduation placement rate. Included in this statistic are the graduates that elect to continue their graduate studies. The Pathways to STEM Leadership (PSL), an NSF S-STEM project at SIU, provides scholarships to support STEM majors' success in the LPD. Now in its sixth year, the PSL project examines the impact early S-STEM leadership training produces on transformational technical leadership in its graduates. The LDP uses an instructional approach framed upon Social Interdependence Theory to foster member interdependence and cooperative learning. This approach has demonstrated significant improvement of student leadership and helped to affirm a highly successful graduation rate. Research has expanded to study the impact of the LDP on graduates pursuing advanced STEM degrees. Preliminary findings suggest that LDP graduates applied leadership training while pursuing a graduate degree and sought out additional leadership roles, community service, or professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficacy of leadership training on undergraduate engineering and technology students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was examined. A leadership development program (LDP) at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) emphasized active involvement and interpersonal relationship among participants to build a community of STEM leaders. The LDP recruited academically talented and economically disadvantaged STEM majors from partner community colleges and trained them as leaders. The directors framed the LPD within Social Interdependence Theory to promote and enable students to cooperatively learn to lead themselves, build leadership skills, and participate in leadership teams. The COVID-19 pandemic imposed extra challenges on implementing this model when teaching and learning switched to an online modality. Program organizers followed the program tenets and "Challenged the Process" to find innovative ways to maintain connections among and with students. Working together, students learned to apply their leadership training by organizing and completing service projects. Additionally, students practiced leadership skills within registered student organizations. Through dedication by students and coaches, the program exceeded expectations through the pandemic. The LDP continued with 100% graduation and 100% retention rates. Students in the LDP continued to show large, statistically significant gains in Leadership Self-efficacy, Motivation to Lead, and Grit compared to peers. This model of leadership development conceptually framed within the Social Interdependence Theory was effective. The LDP at SIUC is an exemplary program and could be a model for engineering leadership programs to follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]