Leadership Studies Minor

The Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, through its Leadership Studies minor, offers a 12-hour curriculum of applied leadership education within the collegiate setting. This minor is open to students of every major. This experiential learning approach to leadership education (i.e., knowledge, disposition, and skill development) combines seminar, coached experiences, and lecture formats with mentoring and portfolio-based self-assessment, skill development and application in a capstone project – either self-directed or faculty guided experiential learning course.

Admission

Student applications to the minor are accepted annually. Students may apply to declare the Leadership Studies minor after completing ELPS 351 with a grade of “B” or better. The application packet includes a completed application (e.g., contact information, references, a list of activities and involvements), application portfolio, project proposal, and permission to access student records. An admissions committee comprised of ELPS faculty and student affairs staff teaching in the program conduct a holistic review of the applications with the goal of creating a diverse cohort of students with demonstrated academic and experiential leadership success. The Leadership Studies minor must be declared before beginning a self-directed leadership capstone project. Minimally, students must be and remain in good standing with the university. Students are admitted into the minor based on the following criteria:

Academic potential as demonstrated by the GPA or leadership coursework;
Proven ability and preparation to lead a self-directed project;
Demonstrated passion for engaging in leadership, social change, and/or service;
Positional and/or non-positional leadership while in college;
Evidence of commitment to developing leadership potential; and
Unique contributions to the leadership learning cohort.

Additional admission, timeline, curricular, and program contact information is available at: https://elps.utk.edu/leadership-studies-minor/.

Minor Requirements:

The minor requires 12 hours of coursework.

In addition to the nine hours of core requirements students must complete three hours of electives to be selected from the provided list of approved electives and the following co-curricular requirements. Approved electives taken prior to admission may be accepted toward completion of the minor. Portfolio requirements must be completed for each term of enrollment. Co-curricular requirements must be met prior to graduation.

Complete:

ELPS 201 - Foundations of Leadership Studies (3)
and
ELPS 350 - Coached Leadership Skills (2)

Select one sequence:

ELPS 351 - Personally and Socially Responsible Leadership (2)
and
ELPS 451 - Leadership in Transition Seminar (1)
and
ELPS 452 - Experiential Leadership Capstone (1)

ELPS 351 - Personally and Socially Responsible Leadership (1)
and
ELPS 451 - Leadership in Transition Seminar (1)
and
Department Approved Project Course* (2)

Electives**

Select 3 hours from:

Co-curricular Requirements

60 hours of Leadership Co-curricular Experiences ***
Leadership Development Portfolio

*	A list of approved courses is on the Leadership Minors website. Student may petition the department for a course not included to count as an approved course.
**	Elective substitutions may be considered by the program. Student may petition the department for a course not included to count as an elective.
***	Approved leadership co-curricular experiences are provided. Additional activities may be considered by the program.

Undergraduates

Graduate Students