Overview
Open to all eligible UGA students, the yearlong Leadership Fellows program offers students the opportunity to fine-tune their career planning skills and assess their personality, strengths and core values to achieve self-awareness—a key piece in identifying one’s leadership capabilities. During the second semester, Leadership Fellows examine effective leadership in organizational settings, and ultimately apply this learning in a service-learning project.
Participants in the program earn the Certificate in Personal and Organizational Leadership.
Activities
In addition to coursework, students are required to participate in these activities, which reinforce commitment to civic issues, service and volunteerism.
- Program Orientation: Students meet other new members of the program, learn more about program expectations and commit to program requirements.
- Challenge Course: Students attend a half-day challenge course to enhance team-building.
- Fellows Service-Learning Project: During this semester-long project, students are assigned to teams of five to six and address a challenge faced by a community organization.
- Corporate Site Visits: Students visit a company’s headquarters for a day each semester. Typically, students meet with senior-level executives who share the company’s leadership mission, learn the company culture and often tour the premises. Past visits included Fortune 500 companies like the Coca-Cola Company, Turner Broadcasting Systems, Delta Airlines and Walmart.
Co-Curricular Activities
Additional out-of-class activities focus on professional, networking and career development skills to complement a student’s academic growth. These include Executive of the Day, a Corporate Case Study and more. ILA students must attend at least two of these co-curricular activities each semester.
- Executive of the Day: Individuals from corporate sponsor companies and organizations meet with students in small groups to share wisdom in their field of expertise and offer insight into succeeding in college and beyond.
- Case Study: Students take an in-depth look at a fictional or real-life problem with a corporate sponsor. They research the issue, analyze the problem and make recommendations to company executives.
- Student-led Service Initiative: ILA students host an annual event to give back to those in need. This program has positively impacted local nonprofits like Nuçi’s Space and the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia.
Coursework
The core of our curriculum is a set of courses that include personal assessments, the study of leadership paradigms and the application of leadership scholarship to the understanding of self and organizational effectiveness.
Required Courses
- ILAD 4100: The introductory course for all ILA students provides the tools and knowledge to complete an in-depth examination of self, as self-awareness is a key leadership competency. Fellows complete assessments and experiential exercises, learn about theory and research and analyze mini-cases to identify their personal preferences and leadership abilities.
- ILAD 5000S: In this course, students discover and develop career management skills to examine and understand the process of developing and implementing a change initiative within a nonprofit organization. The first half of the class focuses on making progress toward career goals and exposure to professional experiences such as networking and professional communications. The second half of the course asks students to implement these learnings to initiate a client relationship and work plan that will be executed in ILAD 5100S: Organizational Leadership. This course consists of a one-hour session each week for the entire semester. As noted, the first half of the class focuses on career management tools, while the second half initiates engagement with students’ service-learning clients.
- ILAD 5100S: This course examines how organizational leaders support, influence, develop and meet the needs of their followers in tandem with creating successful business outcomes. Students learn key leadership theories that develop skills related to employee motivation, development, engagement and empowerment, decision-making, managing conflict, leading teams, leveraging inclusive excellence, creativity, communication and managing organizational change. Students simultaneously apply acquired knowledge and skills through the service-learning projects (SLP) begun in the previous semester.
Electives
Nine hours of additional electives are required to complete the certification.
Qualifying Electives
- ADPR 3860 Intro Public Affairs Communication
- ADPR 5140 Advertising & Society – previously 3140
- ADPR 5910 Public Relations Administration
- ADPR 5920 Public Relations Communications
- ADPR 5990 Seminar in Advertising and Public Relations
- AESC 2050 Effects of Global Agriculture on World Culture
- AESC 4920S FOCUS: Service-Learning Experience
- ALDR 3900S Leadership & Service – previously 3900
- ALDR 4000 Directed Project in Leadership *
- ALDR 4540 Leadership Ethics and Culture
- AIRS 3001–3002 AF Leadership Studies I & II
- ARTS 2050 Cultural Diversity in American Arts
- BIOE 4910/4911 Capstone Design
- BIOL 3900 Seminar in Practice of Medicine
- BIOS 2010 Elementary Biostatistics
- BIOS 3000 Intermediate Biostatistics
- BUSN 3000 Applied Statistics and Data Analysis for Business – previously MSIT 3000(H) Statistical Analysis for Business
- COMM/HPRB 4610 Health Communication
- CMSD 3070 Critical Thinking in the Helping Professions
- CVLE 4910/4911 Engineering Capstone Classes
- ECHD 2050 Academic and Career Planning
- ECHD 3170E Drug and Alcohol Abuse Issues
- ECHD 4020 Interpersonal Relationships
- ECHD 4537/4538S Advanced Peer Leadership on Campus
- ECON 2105 Principles of Macroeconomics
- ECON 4000 The Economics of Human Resources
- ECON 4020 Intermediate Macroeconomics
- ECON 4450 Economic Analysis of Law
- ECON 4650/6650 Economics of Organizations and Management
- ECON 4750 Introduction to Econometrics
- ENGL 3590W Technical and Professional Communication
- ENGR 2110 Engineering Decision Making
- ENVE 3510 Modeling, Statistical Analysis, and Uncertainty
- ENVE 4910 Capstone Design I
- ENVE 4911 Capstone Design II
- FCID 3700S Social Entrepreneurship in the Arts and Sciences
- FHCE 3200 Introduction to Personal Finance
- FREN 4150 French for the Economy
- GLOB 3100 Introduction to Global Health
- HDFS 3110 Professional Development/Community Activities
- HPAM 3600 Introduction to Health Policy
- HPRB 3020 Foundations of Health Promotion Professional Practice
- HPRB 4400 Health Promotion Program Development
- INTL 3200 Introduction to International Relations
- INTL 4210 International Law
- INTL 4220 International Conflict
- INTL 4240 International Organization
- INTL 4250 American Foreign Policy
- INTL 4265 Global Simulation
- INTL 4285 Crisis Diplomacy
- INTL 4320 Politics of Development
- INTL 4430 United States National Security Policy
- INTL 4620 Human Rights
- JRLC 5040/7040 Law of Mass Communications
- JRLC 5040H Law of Mass Communications
- JRLC 5080 International Communication
- KINS 4400 Exercise and Sport Psychology
- LAND 4710 Professional Practice
- LEGL 2700 Legal and Regulatory Environment of Business
- LEGL 2800H Legal and Regulatory Environment of Business
- LEGL 4400/6400 Business Law
- LEGL 4600/6600 Negotiation & Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems
- MCHE 1940 ME Design Studio/Professional Practice
- MCHE 2990 Engineered Systems in Society
- MCHE/AENG 4910 Senior Capstone Design I
- MILS 3010 Applied Leadership and Management I
- MGMT 3000(H) Principles of Management
- MGMT 5400 Strategic Management
- MGMT 5440 Business Ethics
- MGMT 5560 International Strategic Management
- MGMT 5820 Human Resource Management
- MGMT 5920 Organizational Behavior
- MGMT 5970 Organizational Change & Innovation Management
- MGMT 5980 Leadership
- PHRM 3750 Pharmacy and the United States Health Care System
- PHRM 3900 Pharmacy Intercommunications
- PHRM 5530 Ethics in Health Care
- PHIL 2020 Logic & Critical Thinking – previously PHIL 1500
- PHIL 2020H Logic and Critical Thinking
- PHIL 2030 Introduction to Ethics
- PHIL 3200 Ethical Theory
- PHIL 3220 Biomedical Ethics
- PHIL 4220 Environmental Ethics
- POLS 3000 Introduction to Political Theory
- POLS 4020 Political Philosophy: Hobbes to Nietzsche
- PMCY 5050 Abused Drugs
- PSYC 1030H General Psychology Honors
- PSYC 1101 Elementary Psychology
- PSYC 2101 The Psychology of Adjustment
- PSYC 2150 Understanding Cultural Diversity
- PSYC 2530 Mental Processes
- PSYC 3200 Cultural Psychology
- PSYC 3900/5100 Seminar in Psychology
- PSYC 4100 Cognitive Psychology
- PSYC 4130 Physiological and Comparative Psychology
- PSYC 4140 Cognitive Neuroscience
- PSYC 4200 Social Psychology
- PSYC 4230 Psychology of the Workplace
- PSYC 4220 Developmental Psychology
- PSYC 5100 Seminar in Psychology*
- PSYC 5240 Judgment and Decision Making
- SOCI 2420 Class, Status, & Power
- SOCI 2820 Race and Ethnicity in America
- SOCI 3010 Sociology of Culture
- SOCI 3270 Personality & Social Structure
- SOCI 3290 Gender and Work
- SOCI 3340 Social Psychology of Race, Racism, and Discrimination
- SOCI 3730 Social Psychology
- SOCI 3750 Sociology of Work and Industry
- SOCI 3940 Sociology of Leadership
- SOCI 3950 Sociology of Organizations
- SOCI 4280 Global Perspectives on Gender
- SOCI 4350 Seminar in Work and Occupations*
- SOWK 2155 Communication as a Helping Professional
- SPAN 4150 Business Spanish
- SPCM/COMM 1100/1110 Introduction to Public Speaking
- SPCM/COMM 1500/E Introduction to Interpersonal Communication
- SPCM/COMM 1800 Cultural Diversity in Communication
- SPCM/COMM 2150H Perspective on Public Communication
- SPCM/COMM 2400 Oral Decision Making
- SPCM/COMM 2550H Perspectives on Interpersonal Communication
- SPCM/COMM 3200 Business and Professional Communication – Previously 2300
- SPCM/COMM 3320 Environmental Communication
- SPCM/COMM 3600 Small Group Communications – Previously 2510
- SPCM/COMM 3820 Interracial Communication
- SPCM/COMM 4220 Argumentation
- SPCM/COMM 4310 Communication Strategies in Government
- SPCM/COMM 4360 Communication Strategies in Social Movements
- SPCM/COMM 4500 Advanced Interpersonal Communication
- SPCM/COMM 4510 Nonverbal Communication
- SPCM/COMM 4550 Organizational Communication
- SPCM/COMM 4800 Intercultural Communication
- SPCM/COMM 4900 Special Topics in Speech Communication*
- STAT 2000 Introductory Statistics
- STAT 2100H Introductory Statistics
- STAT 3110 Introduction to Statistics for Life Science
- STAT 3120 Introduction to Probability for Life Science
- WMST 2010 Introduction to Women’s Studies
- WMST 3110 Gender, Race, Class & Sexuality
- WMST 4170S Environment, Gender, Race, Class
Honors Program
Those who participate in UGA’s Honors Program receive honors credit for ILAD 4100 and 5100S.
Eligibility
When applying to the program, applicants must have:
- A minimum GPA of 3.2
- 45 hours of UGA or transfer credit (not including AP credits)
When ILA classes begin, applicants must have:
- At least 2 semesters of undergraduate courses remaining at UGA
The ideal ILA candidate is:
- Passionate about leadership development and growth
- Conscientious and driven while also focused on developing positive relationships
- Committed to being a values-based, impact-driven leader
How to Apply
Complete an online application indicating your demonstrated leadership experience, including university activities, community service and work, as well as answer two essay questions.
There are two application periods for the Leadership Fellows: Applications for Spring Fellows open September 1, and Fall Fellows open November 15.
NOTE: This program is available to all eligible UGA students. During the August-September admissions cycle, we only accept applications for the Fellows program. During the December–January admission cycle, if you are a Terry student, you may apply to both the Leadership Fellows and Leadership Scholars programs, but you will ultimately be accepted to only one.
- Student Services Specialist, Institute for Leadership Advancement