Development of Assessable Leadership Experiences Outside of the Engineering Classroom.

The challenge of providing leadership learning experiences is particularly challenging in an academic environment. The structure of a traditional classroom environment (built in reward system [grades], presence of an authority figure [professor] and very limited time frame) restrict the range of experiences that a developing leader may encounter and process. On the other hand, it is difficult to assess outcomes using external opportunities for developing leadership capacity because the opportunities (e.g. leading student clubs, honor societies, or ROTC) have significant structural differences. However, the challenges presented in such external opportunities, especially for leading volunteers in any organization, can provide significant learning opportunities that cannot be easily matched in a classroom. This paper discusses the first year of developing a "laboratory" using external development opportunities and the structure used for assessing the leadership experiences for students in a focused engineering leadership class. While none of the leadership experiences are exactly the same, there are common elements of each experience. Specifically, the students must self- identify a volunteer (non-paying) organization in which they are engaged. They must clearly articulate the value of that organization in their lives. Further, the students must be able to identify at least one significant problem within the organization that they can address, plus articulate a vision for the organization after solving the problem. Finally, the students must develop an action plan for leading the change to solve the problem, including a defined communication strategy and what leadership styles and tools will be used (and how they will be used) to motivate the volunteers. To provide further experience and help provide value to the organizations, the students were organized into groups of four (cadres), such that each student could act as advisors to each other and assessors of progress for each team member, reporting specific metrics and general progress to the class professor on a weekly basis. This paper will present an overview of the program, a description of the roles and results, as well as lessons learned in helping provide tangible leadership experiences to developing engineering leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]