Impacting Student Leader Development Using Leadership Competencies

Utilizing a collaborative approach to student leader selection and training, LSU First Year Experience provides a comprehensive, competency-based experience from recruitment and selection to team development and training for our extended orientation, peer mentoring, and welcome week leaders. This initiative resulted from the desire to streamline student leader processes, standardize expectations, improve student leader training, efficiently use resources, and develop skills and competencies beyond program specific training.  

As student affairs professionals, it is our responsibility to provide opportunities for students to develop the skills and competencies necessary for them be successful and competitive in their post-graduate careers. In addition, as we are continually challenged to do more with less, this session provides an innovative way for student affairs professionals to maximize the experiences they provide to students while not depleting precious resources – both human and monetary.  

The presenters will provide attendees with an overview of how we moved from multiple decentralized processes to a combined and collaborative effort across three major programmatic initiatives, not only strengthening the experiences and skill development of our students, but also positively impacting the experience of our professional staff responsible for implementing these programs.  

Learning Outcomes

By attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

• identify key leadership competencies relevant to student leader opportunities on their campus;
• identify strategies to streamline current recruitment, selection, and training practices for multiple leadership experiences;
• develop an action plan to utilize competencies with their own student leader selection and training processes; and
• describe an assessment plan to evaluate student learning during a competency based leadership experience.