The Citizen Leadership Institute (CLI) started its second year at Longwood University after its curriculum has been revamped from last year, according to Laura Parker, assistant director of leadership development and programs, facilitator of CLI.
“Last year was kind of our pilot year. It was very kind of traditional in the classroom workshops. This year, after some feedback from students, I have decided to completely redo the structure of it to make it be more experiential,” said Parker.
According to the program guide on CLI, “The Citizen Leadership Institute is an experiential learning program that develops Longwood students into Citizen Leaders who lead, serve, and advocate in order to transform their communities for the common good”.
Per Parker, there were 27 students in attendance at the first meeting, which was Tuesday, Sept. 11 at 4 p. m.
Students were asked to introduce themselves via notecards and how they define leadership and then to introduce themselves to as many people as possible. The person who introduced him or herself to the most people, per Parker, received a small prize. Renee Cotton, class of 2021, won with eight people met.
Per Parker, students were briefed about expectations and the program’s structure. Students were then tasked with finding a partner and discussing the qualities of a leader. After discussing their definitions with partners, they made groups of four people and came up with five essential characteristics of leadership.
“Leadership to me would be having integrity and confidence to lead,” said Jacob Shope, a freshmen psychology major.
Some students attended the event for class credit.
“I came for one of my classes, but I actually really enjoyed it,” Regan Standlick, a senior social work major, said. “I’m taking leadership…I feel like this particular workshop has helped me to better understand (leadership).”
Others are taking it mostly for personal development, such as Elena Munger, a senior social work major.
“I’m taking this course because I want to further my leadership skills and become an active citizen leader,” said Munger. “To me, a citizen leader is someone who does things for the greater good, for other people, while remaining culturally competent and culturally sensitive.”
According to Parker, the central goal is to create citizen leaders.
“The main goals really are to create citizen leaders around Longwood and for me what that means is to really have students identify what their values and their passions are and find ways to pursue those,” said Parker.
Some students, like Shope, had personal expectations as well.
“I’m going to learn (leadership) qualities I can apply in my life,” said Shope.
“I think it will help me become engaged with the community,” said Morgan Dunn, a freshman political science major. “I just learned that so many people have different definitions of leadership and it’s important to recognize that people have those different leadership definitions.”
Per Parker, the program is run through the Office of Citizen Leadership and Social Justice Education (CLSJE). The program’s curriculum was mostly developed by Parker, but with help from other campus staff members both within and outside CLSJE.
In addition to the in-classroom experiences, the program will include experience learning, according to Parker.
“In the next few weekends we will be doing an off-campus retreat, which will be taking place at the cabin that campus recreation has for their ropes course,” Parker said. “Then we will be doing an interactive tour at the Robert Russa Moton Museum. Then we’re doing an activity called place as text, where I’m going to put the students at different places in Farmville to exploring the area.”
Per Parker, the funding comes directly from the CLSJE budget.
Students were told to pick up pictures and explain a reason behind why the picture exemplifies leadership in any way or form at the first meeting for Citizen Leadership Institute on Sept. 11.
Laura Parker, assistant director of leadership development and programs, facilitated the discussion amongst the group.
