Framing “Leadership”: Holistic Integration of a Competencies-based Approach to Student Leadership Development in a Community Service Center

Presentation Format

Individual Presentation

Intended Audience

Administrators

Program Abstract

The University of Chicago’s Community Service Center (UCSC) has spent two years refining its programming and evaluations to foreground a set of civic leadership competencies, drawing on Seemiller’s Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook (2014). This workshop presents their methodology for determining center-wide and programmatic priorities in leadership development; discusses impacts on strategic planning, partnership and program development, evaluation, and communications; and offers sample materials that other centers could use to similar effect.

Presentation Description

The University Community Service Center (UCSC) is one of 20 programs and service that make up Campus and Student Life at the University of Chicago. Our mission is to engage UChicago students with communities and partners to build a more just Chicago. UCSC’s various programs prepare students to become productive, thoughtful citizens and effective, inspiring leaders in their communities and professions by providing them with service opportunities that complement a rigorous academic experience. UCSC encourages students to explore Chicago, to make meaningful connections with diverse communities throughout the city, to develop friendships with other civic-minded students, and to apply classroom learning to understanding and addressing social issues.

Beginning in 2014, UCSC began a significant refinement of its mission, vision, goals, and strategic priorities so as to define and foreground a specific set of student leadership competencies. Drawing on Seemiller’s Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook (Jossey-Bass, 2014), UCSC’s embrace of a competencies-based approach to student leadership development has now impacted how we articulate our mission and goals, how we structure and evaluate both our specific programs and also our center’s impacts as a whole, and how we collaborate with our various partners (both on- and off-campus). It is also reshaping our dialogue both with current students at the University and also with our alumni, and contributing to our ongoing development of a research agenda based on our efforts to cultivate civic leaders for Chicago and beyond.

This workshop will use UCSC’s experience as a case study to offer participants concrete mechanisms and resources for applying a competencies-based approach to the mission and work of a university-based community service or civic engagement center. These will include techniques for collective values determination and clarification; sample assessment and evaluation instruments for both individual programs and center-wide aims; and sample communications materials for articulating a competencies-based strategy and competency-framed student learning outcomes.

Location

Room - 1220B

Start Date

4-14-2016 3:15 PM

End Date

4-14-2016 4:30 PM

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Apr 14th, 3:15 PM Apr 14th, 4:30 PM

Framing “Leadership”: Holistic Integration of a Competencies-based Approach to Student Leadership Development in a Community Service Center

Room - 1220B

The University Community Service Center (UCSC) is one of 20 programs and service that make up Campus and Student Life at the University of Chicago. Our mission is to engage UChicago students with communities and partners to build a more just Chicago. UCSC’s various programs prepare students to become productive, thoughtful citizens and effective, inspiring leaders in their communities and professions by providing them with service opportunities that complement a rigorous academic experience. UCSC encourages students to explore Chicago, to make meaningful connections with diverse communities throughout the city, to develop friendships with other civic-minded students, and to apply classroom learning to understanding and addressing social issues.

Beginning in 2014, UCSC began a significant refinement of its mission, vision, goals, and strategic priorities so as to define and foreground a specific set of student leadership competencies. Drawing on Seemiller’s Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook (Jossey-Bass, 2014), UCSC’s embrace of a competencies-based approach to student leadership development has now impacted how we articulate our mission and goals, how we structure and evaluate both our specific programs and also our center’s impacts as a whole, and how we collaborate with our various partners (both on- and off-campus). It is also reshaping our dialogue both with current students at the University and also with our alumni, and contributing to our ongoing development of a research agenda based on our efforts to cultivate civic leaders for Chicago and beyond.

This workshop will use UCSC’s experience as a case study to offer participants concrete mechanisms and resources for applying a competencies-based approach to the mission and work of a university-based community service or civic engagement center. These will include techniques for collective values determination and clarification; sample assessment and evaluation instruments for both individual programs and center-wide aims; and sample communications materials for articulating a competencies-based strategy and competency-framed student learning outcomes.