Vol. 19, No. 30

May 10, 2000

Leaders are made, not born, in new academic program

Don't tell Audrey Helfman that leaders are born, not made. She's seen too many students learn techniques that turn them into successful leaders--often, to their own surprise--to believe that adage, she said. "There are specific skills of leadership, and those skills can be taught and developed," according to Helfman, consumer studies, who coordinates UD's newly approved interdisciplinary minor in leadership. "Not everyone who takes a course in leadership will go on to become CEO of a company, but that doesn't mean that person can't be a leader. Leadership can happen at various levels of an organization." Helfman already teaches two of the three courses in leadership that will make up the core of the minor, which was approved by the University Faculty Senate at its Feb. 7 meeting. On April 26, retired Gen. Charles Krulak, former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at Mitchell Hall to kick off the new minor. Krulak, who now serves as senior vice chairman and chief administrative officer of MBNA America, addressed an audience of about 250 students and faculty on the subject of "Leadership: Integrity and Values." The consumer studies department, where the leadership minor is housed, is developing an application process for interested students and will begin accepting them for the minor during the fall semester. Most will begin their course work in the spring. Some students have already taken a number of leadership courses, "and they'll have a head start" toward completing the 18-credit minor, Karen Stein, consumer studies, said. "Our department is interdisciplinary, and we purposely designed this new minor to be highly interdisciplinary and to work well with a variety of majors," Stein said. "We define leadership as preparing people to be responsible in their organizations, in their communities and even in their homes, so it has broad application." The new minor was an outgrowth of the Leadership Education At Delaware (LEAD) program, which linked academic course work with student life activities on campus to help participants develop their leadership potential. In 1998, the Department of Consumer Studies became the academic home of the LEAD program and also changed the name of its consumer economics major to leadership and consumer economics. Students selecting the leadership minor will take three core courses--"Leadership, Integrity and Change," "Leadership in Organizations" and "Leadership and Power"--offered through consumer studies. The courses cover theoretical and practical aspects of leadership and help students develop such skills as team-building, decision-making and problem-solving, all with an emphasis on ethics and integrity, Helfman said. Students in the "Leadership, Integrity and Change" course "use the campus as a laboratory," she said, completing a project in which they research an issue at the University and put together a proposal for change. In "Leadership in Organizations," Helfman requires students to perform a community service project to supplement their academic learning with some hands-on experience. Students who have taken leadership courses often comment on their practical value, Helfman said. One of those students, Tim Wolf, CHEP 2001, said the "Leadership, Integrity and Change" course he is taking this semester has helped him develop skills he currently uses in leading Bible study groups. He said he expects to use those skills even more next school year, when he will serve as president of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. "Each student gets a chance to lead the class, and we do a lot of other activities in class that give us practice leading," Wolf, who is majoring in family and community services and wants to work as a youth pastor after graduation, said. "The things I've learned are things I can use in all kinds of situations in everyday life." Nicole Bedard, CHEP 2000, took her first leadership course, "Leadership, Integrity and Change," as a sophomore because she was intrigued by the title. "I just fell in love with the program," she said. "I was on sports teams in high school, and I was even captain of the tennis team, but I never saw myself as a leader until I took these courses and starting learning about leadership skills." Bedard now has taken all three courses, will graduate with a major in leadership and consumer economics and will return to UD in the fall to earn her master's degree in public administration. She said she is planning a career in human resources management, with an eye toward leading training programs. In addition to the core courses, students in the leadership minor will be required to select one of six communication courses--"because communicating effectively is such a vital part of leadership," Helfman noted. They also will select two additional courses, outside their major, from a list of electives that encompass 10 areas of study and four colleges. Electives include leadership courses taught in the departments of animal and food sciences, health and exercise sciences and military science. They also include courses in such departments as philosophy, history, political science and sociology. Helfman said she expects the range of majors and career goals to vary widely among students who pursue a minor in leadership. "We don't take the view that leadership resides in the position a person holds," Stein said. "We strive to prepare students for identifying the issues and looking at them realistically, for making the difficult choices, for mobilizing people to take action and for dealing with change, even rapid change. These are students who will make a difference in whatever they do. --Ann Manser