Intro to Leadership Education (LDR 100) is a required, one credit class for Leadership Advancement Scholars that is to take place during the first semester of your freshman year. Coming into the first semester of freshman year and being a brand-new member of LAS, I was excited to have this class. I figured that it would be a great first class to introduce the foundation of what LAS and the Leadership Institute is all about. My expectations for this class were honestly only that it would touch upon basic leadership topics as well as how to create our e-portfolio. Nonetheless, I was eager to learn as much about leadership that this class offered.
LDR 100 had two separate classes taught by two different members of the Leadership Institute. My instructor was Jonathan Glenn. Like many other classes during this strange time in our lives, this class was held entirely online via Zoom. In this class, we discussed a wide variety of topics with a different topic of discussion every week. Some topics we discussed were leadership and service, college/stress management, implicit bias, power and privilege, and so many more necessary and important topics. I really enjoyed and appreciated the way that we were able to have a discussion every week rather than Mr. Glenn simply giving us a lecture. I think it was beneficial in the sense that we were all able to bounce ideas off of each other and hear different perspectives than our own. We also completed various assignments relating to leadership.
I believe that this class will serve as a good starting point as I continue with my leadership education. As with everything in life, you have to start somewhere, and I think this was the perfect class for this. This class covered some very important topics. Taking topics such as how to manage your tasks so that you don’t overwork and stress yourself out is important because if you are so stressed and caught up in yourself, you can’t help or lead others in the way that they deserve. I think it is important to take the knowledge you learn in any subject and apply it to your everyday life. I also know that leadership never ends, and you will never stop gaining knowledge on how to improve your own style of leadership. I will surely take what I learned in this class and apply it to my everyday life as well as continuing to build upon it as I keep growing and learning.
Samantha McDonald 