Liberal arts colleges have a long history of educating persons for leadership roles. Following the revolutionary war, Benjamin Rush, founder of Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, promoted a distinctly American higher education built around the proposition that an educated citizenry is the bulwark of liberty (1). A useful and practical liberal arts education is the springboard to engaged citizenship, leadership in service to others, and the development of our communities. American college graduates traditionally graduated to become a part of the construction and establishment of the families, communities, and institutions that built this country.
Everyday Leaders The focus of much leadership training includes an overemphasis on positional leadership—CEOs, generals, or governors, for example. Many in society hold the view that significant leadership is reserved for the few rather than within the grasp of all. We believe that students can leave our university with the notion that they are leaders, and adopt a more expansive understanding of leadership than that of positional leadership alone. Leadership is making a positive difference in one’s community, and one of the goals of the university is to engender in our graduates the inspiration that they can make a difference in their communities. The Center for Creative Leadership refers to “Everyday Leaders” who are people involved in a variety of leadership roles, large and small, in their job, their neighborhoods, and their communities. Harriot College of Arts and Sciences wants its students to leave the campus environment with a sense that they can be a leader every day in the “real world” outside of campus.
ECU Leadership Resources Center for Student Leadership and Civic Engagement Student Organization Center Leadership Resources Harriot College Alumni "Everyday Leaders" Leadership Stories
Harriot College "Teaching Leadership through the Liberal Arts" White Paper
Interdisciplinary Leadership Studies Minor Joyner Library Leadership Studies "Pirate Guide" Leadershape Program for ECU Students Additional Leadership Resources Center for Creative Leadership Newsletter on Everyday Leaders Center for Leadership Development Leadership Wiki
Everyday Leader Research White Paper Center for Creative Leadership Leadership for a Changing World "Leadership Talks"
Leadership Reconsidered Long-Term Vision and Everyday Leaders Mt Holyoke's Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts Teaching and Leadership: CDTL Brief The Initiative on Leadership and the Liberal Arts
University of Richmond Jepson School of Leadership Studies References
(1) Durden, W. (18 July, 2003). The liberal arts as a bulwark of business education.
The Chronicles of Higher Education. (2) Martin, A. (2007). Everyday leadership: A CCL White Paper. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Contact Person
Michael B. Brown, PhD
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies
252-328-6249
