Class 3

For the Leadership and Social Change minor, I had to take various classes. Many of which will help me greatly in jobs and help me in my own personal life.

Class 3: Exploring Citizen Leadership

I took the course Exploring Citizen Leadership in the fall of 2019. “This two-semester interdisciplinary course offers an introduction to citizen leadership. 1015 explores traditional and contemporary leadership theory and competencies by comparing cultural contexts of leadership.” (HokieSPA) This class was an asynchronous virtual lecture. In this class, we had set groups that we worked with throughout the whole semester. In this group, we had to work with a community partner to achieve some form of goal. Through this class, we also had to take knowledge inventories once a week. We also had discussion boards to do as well.

This course had 7 objectives: 1. Describe historical approaches to leadership theory and provide examples of these theories 2. Appreciate diverse styles of leadership, including the ways personal preferences and stylistic differences of race, gender, and age affect leadership practices 3. Describe the relationship between the leader and follower 4. Effectively apply definitions and key concepts of citizen leadership to individual practices 5. Assess personal leadership styles, values, and competencies 6. Identify skills and reflective practices that assist in developing one’s leadership 7. Demonstrate servant leadership 6. Write a personal philosophy of leadership that demonstrates critical reflection on contemporary leadership challenges and that demonstrates knowledge of leadership concepts introduced in the course.

This class prepared me for working well within teams and with people in my community. This class had a big impact on many of my future classes as well. This class prepared me for many of the community-based projects that are completed for the Leadership and Social Change minor. The projects also helped prepare me for program planning for my future career in cooperative extension. This class also helped me fall in love with helping communities and other people.

In terms of the social change model, this class focuses on all three parts of the model, society values, individual values, and group values. Within society values, the class focuses on getting students out in the Blacksburg community. This was a good project for first-year students and students new to the area. It made you get to know the community you’re in. Within individual values, we had to commit ourselves to our teams and the organization that we decided to work with. Lastly, with group values, we had to collaborate with other members in our teams to reach a common goal. We also had to work out any issues we may have run into during the process of completing this project. This was vital because the class was online, communicating was very important.

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