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 throughout the year. The application packet includes a completed application (e.g., contact information, references, a list of leadership activities and involvements), and permission to access student records. An admissions committee comprised of ELPS faculty and instructors 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. 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.
Minimally, students must be and remain in good standing with the university and Leadership Studies. The Leadership Studies minor must be declared and ELPS 351 or ELPS 352 passed with a B or better before beginning a self-directed leadership capstone project. Students must pass the ELPS 499 Proficiency course requirements to graduate.
Additional admission, timeline, curricular, and program contact information is available at: https://elps.utk.edu/leadership-studies-minor/.
