Leadership Programs
Leadership Institute
The Leadership Institute is a four-year certification program. The Leadership Institute offers five different leadership programs through the Center for Leadership and Service. These programs include: T2K Bronze Leadership Program, Silver Leadership Program, Gold Leadership Program, and Platinum Leadership Program. Students must complete T2K Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum in order to receive the Leadership Institute certification. In addition, the center offers L.E.A.D., a seven-week leadership certification program.
Additional information about the Center for Leadership and Service's Leadership Institute, including the program application, can be found in Cougar Link at https://kean.campuslabs.com/engage/organization/leadershipinstitute.
Transition to Kean (T2K) Bronze Leadership Program
The Transition to Kean (T2K) Bronze Leadership Program is a first-year leadership development program offered through the Center for Leadership and Service. T2K Bronze is a unique component of the Kean Leadership Institute. This pre-orientation program is offered to 50 first-year students entering Kean University. T2K Bronze is designed to give incoming first-year students the chance to learn about the many forms of student leadership at Kean, to explore options for campus involvement, and to build connections to peers and upperclassmen leaders. This program focuses on Individual values, consciousness of self, congruence and commitment.
Fall 2024
- T2K Section 6, Tuesdays, 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
- T2K Section 20, Thursdays, 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Applications for the Fall 2024 T2K Bronze Leadership Program are now available. Learn more by clicking here.
Silver Leadership Program
The Silver Leadership Program is the second-year leadership development program offered through the Center for Leadership and Service. The purpose of the program is to maximize the ability of the students to succeed and contribute to Kean University as student leaders in the coming years. If you want to get involved and make a true contribution to the campus community, this program is ideal for you! This program focuses on group values along with collaboration, common purpose and controversy with civility.
Gold Leadership Program
The Gold Leadership Program is a third-year leadership development program offered through the Center for Leadership and Service. The purpose of the program is for all individuals to see themselves as part of a larger whole. Through this value, individuals and groups are able to see how their efforts for social change, large or small, play an important role when joined with the many others working toward the same goals in a global effort. This program focuses on citizenship and society/community values.
Platinum Leadership Program
The Platinum Leadership Program is a fourth-year leadership development program that will combine all skills learned throughout the years while preparing our leadership students for life after graduation. Students will continually hone their skills by facilitating leadership development in other students, working in one-on-one situations with professional mentors on leadership issues and preparing to utilize their skills in diverse work environments.
Platinum consists of students who have experienced leadership in a variety of forms and from a diversity of perspectives. These individuals have an in-depth understanding of themselves, their relationships and their place in the world around them. As a result, they are intensely committed to leading change, serving and empowering others, transforming communities, and to building strong leadership skills in others.
Additional Certifications
L.E.A.D. (Leadership Education and Development)
L.E.A.D. (Leadership Education and Development) is a leadership program offered by the Center for Leadership and Service. L.E.A.D. will engage Kean University's current and rising leaders through a series of workshop lectures, discussions, activities and games — all geared to develop the organizational leader.
Prior to each workshop, participants will be given the chance to interact and network, with a dinner. Workshops are held during the spring semester; dates and time TBA. Workshop topics and activities will range from week to week during the seven-week program. In addition to participating in the workshops, L.E.A.D. will enable the student leaders to work together to plan, propose, implement and participate in a community service project demonstrating their skills and abilities.
All Kean University undergraduate students with more than 18 credits obtained and graduate students are encouraged to apply. Prior formal leadership experience is not required. Applicants are only asked to possess a desire to bring about positive change to their organizations and community.
L.E.A.D. Program Application (Available on the Cougar Link Leadership Institute Forms Page)
S.A.I.L. (Students Advancing In Leadership)
S.A.I.L. is a leadership program that operates at the Kean Ocean campus in conjunction with the Center for Leadership and Service and the Kean Ocean Office of Campus Life. For more information about S.A.I.L., please visit https://www.kean.edu/sail-leadership-program.
Social Change Model of Leadership Development
Established in 1994, the Social Change Model approaches leadership as a purposeful, collaborative, values-based process that results in positive social change.
The Model was built upon the following assumptions:
- “Leadership” is concerned with effecting change on behalf of others and society.
- Leadership is collaborative.
- Leadership is a process rather than a position.
- Leadership should be value-based.
- All students (not just those who hold formal leadership positions) are potential leaders.
- Service is a powerful vehicle for developing students’ leadership skills.
The Social Change Model of Leadership is based on seven dimensions or values, called the “Seven C’s”:
Individual Values
- Consciousness of self-awareness of the beliefs, values, attitudes and emotions that motivate one to take action.
- Congruence — thinking, feeling and behaving with consistency, genuineness, authenticity and honesty.
- Commitment — motivational energy to serve and that drives the collective effort. Commitment implies passion, intensity and duration.
Group Values
- Collaboration — working with others in a common effort. It constitutes the cornerstone value of the group leadership effort because it empowers self and others through trust.
- Common Purpose — working with shared aims and values. It facilitates the group’s ability to engage in collective analysis of the issues at hand and the task to be undertaken.
- Controversy with Civility — recognizes two fundamental realities of any creative group effort: that differences in viewpoint are inevitable, and that such difference must be aired openly but with civility.
Community/Social Values
- Citizenship — process whereby the individual and the collaborative group become responsibly connected to the community and the society through the leadership experience.
Change
- Change — "hub” that gives meaning and purpose to the 7 C’s. Change, in other words, is the ultimate goal of the creative process of leadership — to make a better world and a better society for self and others.
All seven values work together to accomplish the transcendent “C” of change. Each dimension interacts with one another as shown below.
The individual dimension consists of the values: consciousness of self, congruence and commitment. The group dimensions consists of the values: common purpose, collaboration and controversy with civility. Finally, the societal/community dimension consists of the value of citizenship. All of the values contribute to the ultimate goal of change.
Goals
The Social Change Model of Leadership has two primary goals:
- To enhance student learning and development; more specifically, to develop in each student participant greater self-knowledge and leadership competence.
- To facilitate positive social change at the institution or in the community. That is, undertake actions that will help the institution/community to function more effectively and humanly.
Sources:
-Astin, Helen S. and Alexander W. Astin. A Social Change Model of Leadership Development Guidebook Version III. The National Clearinghouse of Leadership Programs, 1996.