LDRS 2000 Foundations of Leadership (4 Credits)

LDRS 2000 focuses on developing an understanding of the foundations of leadership through an overview of leadership theories and definitions, an exploration of the present and future contextual demands on leaders, and in-depth self-assessment which includes identification of strengths, weaknesses, social identity, and leadership practices. The course will also explore the role of leadership and followership in teams. LDRS 2000 is designed to broaden your understanding of what constitutes leadership while challenging you to understand yourself better and begin to apply civically engaged leadership in new ways. This course is designed to broaden your understanding of "who" and "what" constitutes leadership.

LDRS 2017 Inclusive Leadership (1,2 Credit)

In this academic entree to the study of leadership, we explore the fundamental nature of leadership and how to develop as students of leadership in a diverse world. This course encourages students to discover their personal identities, values, preferences, risk-taking propensity and other characteristics as these relate to their leadership potential. Students integrate learning in a Personal Leadership Statement, declaring what they stand for as an inclusive leader. We explore the idea of "community" and our obligations to take on a leadership role in the community with whom we identify. Service as an act of leadership will be expected both as a course requirement and overall program requirement in the Pioneer Leadership Program. Prerequisite: membership in the Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP), or permission of PLP faculty.

LDRS 2018 Leadership: Theory to Innovation (1,2 Credit)

This course continues the process of learning about leadership as a process and the role of the leader and follower in that process. Particular attention will be paid to developing passions, self-interests and facilitation skills that allow leaders and followers to innovate and create change. Service as an act of leadership continues both as a course requirement and overall program requirement in the Pioneer Leadership Program. Prerequisites: LDRS 2017 and membership in the Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP), or permission of PLP faculty.

LDRS 2019 Teaming for Social Change (1,2 Credit)

Teams are the primary vehicle by which many, if not most, complex tasks are accomplished in our society. As a result, there is an increasing demand for leaders who can build, lead and participate in effective teams. With this course, you are completing your first-year sequence as a student of leadership. It will help lay the theoretical and conceptual foundations you need to prepare you to (a) reflect on teams of which you have been a part; (b) develop strategies for making your teams more effective, whether you are a leader or a team member; and (c) help you develop skills for your sophomore service project. Prerequisites: LDRS 2018 and membership in the Pioneer Leadership Program, or permission of PLP faculty.

LDRS 2021 Leadership and Social Movements (1-2 Credits)

This course continues the process of learning about leadership as a process and the role of the leader and follower in that process. Particular attention will be paid to developing passions, self-interests and facilitation skills that allow leaders and followers to innovate and create change. Service as an act of leadership continues both as a course requirement and overall program requirement in the Pioneer Leadership Program. Prerequisites: LDRS 2017, LDRS 2019 and membership in the Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP), membership in the Colorado Women's College or permission of PLP faculty.

LDRS 2040 Leading Community Change (4 Credits)

This course builds on the themes we began in the first-year PLP sequence. Specifically, we continue to expand your understanding of community, citizenship, and spheres of influence. Last year, you explored theories of leadership as well as your own assets and passions you carry into leadership. During the second-year course series we learn how to think strategically and act purposefully to make change happen in a larger context—the community. This course asks you to look at and practice leadership as a relational process that brings people together around common interests in order to effect positive change within institutions and/or communities. We will examine and practice key leadership concepts including self-interest, power, and collaboration. We will also practice specific leadership strategies, including 1-1 interviewing techniques, issue research, developing mission statements and action plans, and conducting community research. Prerequisites: LDRS 2017, LDRS 2018, LDRS 2019 and membership in the Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP), or permission of the PLP faculty.

LDRS 2050 Collaborative Leadership: Local Perspectives (2 Credits)

This course is a continuation of LDRS 2040 and the exploration of the topics of collaborative leadership and community change. In this course you will begin the implementation of the Community Change Initiatives you developed in LDRS 2040. To effectively enact community change, “change agents” must manage project logistics, continually develop as leaders, and be competent communicators. By the end of this course, you will further develop your abilities to effect community change through knowledge and awareness of strategies to effectively impact these areas. Prerequisites: LDRS 2017, LDRS 2021, LDRS 2019, LDRS 2040 and PLP membership or approval.

LDRS 2060 Collaborative Leadership: Global Perspectives (2 Credits)

This course is a continuation of LDRS 2040 and LDRS 2050. We will pursue the exploration of leadership and community change adding a focus on global cultural differences. In LDRS 2050, much of our class was devoted to communication, particularly “crucial conversations,” where we applied new ideas and skills to leadership and followership in CCI teams. This quarter, we will focus on communication skills in diverse cultures and how leadership is enacted and perceived in different cultures around the globe. Students in this course will also finalize the implementation of their CCI developed in LDRS 2040 and LDRS 2050. Community change initiatives require students to understand the communities where they live and work, to be confident in the appropriateness of their community change efforts, and to fairly and conceptually assess their efforts and impacts. By the end of this course, you will develop a deeper understanding of the community change process. Prerequisites: LDRS 2050 and PLP membership or PLP approval.

LDRS 2070 Envisioning & Enacting Anti-Racist, Feminist Leadership (2 Credits)

This course explores the complex intersections of race, gender, and the complexities of setting life goals for leadership. Students will consider race and gender as a socially constructed concepts and discuss the biases and systemic barriers in which these constructs have developed and how this may influence their understanding and enactment of leadership. The course focuses on practical application of goal setting, career planning, and tools for navigating systemic barriers to leadership. To address these perspectives, the course reviews research from a variety of disciplines, including education, social psychology, sociology, economics, and management and organizational science.

LDRS 2100 Finding Our Path: Discovering Meaning and Purpose (4 Credits)

The Finding Your Way course is an opportunity to slow down and identify your passion, deep commitment, and calling. To locate a more holistic center, a sovereign-self, away from the influences of academic work, social-networks, family, or self-imposed expectations. In the midst of the busy and compressed experiences of campus life it is easy to lose track of one’s intrinsic drive, an internal-compass of meaning and purpose. The Finding Your Way course is an invitation to meet and develop relationships and sense of belonging with fellow DU students who are also struggling with finding ways to understand the emerging sense of self at the interface between the demands of academia, larger social pressures, and expectations from loved ones. Nationally the rates of depression, anxiety, burnout, cynicism, and loss of heart are increasing on college campuses. It seems that many students are in need of tools and strategies for locating meaning and purpose in their academic life, to make sense of the tension between self and external demands. The Finding Your Way course will address these concerns by: -Disconnecting from the pace and intensity of campus life through dedicated time for rest and personal renewal; -Developing a more wholehearted and integrated self by exploring sources of fragmentation; -Seeking a deeper understanding of identity and sense of purpose through reflection; -Connecting with fellow DU students so as to develop a sense of collegial belonging; and -Experiencing the healing gift of being listened too at the deepest levels of your heart. Finding Your Way course is structured around a retreat format consistent with Courage to Teach practices and principles that have guided the inner-work of young leaders, students, teachers, physicians, faith leaders and members of the helping professions for over 20 years. You and a group of 20-25 DU students are invited (not required), through small group conversation, reflective readings, personal time, journaling, and art to find your way toward wholeness. The retreat will provide participants with greater clarity on how to slow down and attend to one’s deep sense of selfhood with courage, fearlessness, and imagination.

LDRS 2120 Mentorship: Theory to Practice (2 Credits)

Whether being mentored, or mentoring another person, understanding how to make the most of the experience is important. This course will explore the theory and practice of mentoring. Students will explore mentoring philosophy, design, implementation and assessment, as well as the potential benefits and pitfalls of mentoring relationships. They will examine diversity and inclusion in mentoring and the impact of mentoring in different academic pursuits and professional capacities. Students will have the opportunity to hear from professionals who have utilized mentoring in their careers, research important elements of mentoring for their desired career paths, design their “ideal” mentoring experience from both the mentee and mentor experience, and learn how assessment can help evaluate the effectiveness of mentoring programs.

LDRS 2130 Listening and Discernment (2 Credits)

Leadership scholars and practitioners alike name listening as an essential practice of creating change and building sustainable and healthy relationships. The ability to hold a listening-first disposition aids a leader’s ability to engage with the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) modern world. Without listening and discernment practices, the distinction between one’s intention/impact, power over/power with, and tyranny/leadership is unknowable. In this course, students will learn about different models of effective, active, and embodied listening. True listening and discernment is an active practice, which can be grown and developed into a generative habit. By learning practices and approaches for listening and discernment as a means of enriching one’s capacity to create generative social change.

LDRS 2310 Leadership in a Virtual World (4 Credits)

Distributed organizations are commonplace in the high-tech world in which we now find ourselves living and working. Leading in private and public settings requires a developed set of skills to utilize the virtual environment to advance a shared goal. Technical skills and communication take on new importance for leading virtually. This course focuses on these new realities of today's work and community environments. Through readings of current research on virtual work and team leadership as well as online assignments to recognize, practice and develop needed skills, students gain a strong foundational understanding of what constitutes effectiveness in virtual work and community leadership.

LDRS 2340 Gender and Leadership (4 Credits)

This course explores the complex intersections of gender and the intricacies of enacting leadership. Students will consider gender as a socially constructed concept and discuss the historical inequities in which this construct has developed and how this has influenced their understanding and enactment of leadership. This course considers the experiences of trans*, genderqueer, ciswomen, and cismen leaders, as well as concepts of gender expression and the intersectionality of identities as influencers on leadership access and practice. To address these perspectives, the course reviews research from a variety of disciplines, including education, social psychology, sociology, economics, and management and organizational science.

LDRS 2360 Leadership in Film (2 Credits)

This course initiates a thoughtful consideration about the nature of leadership by ways of film analysis of narrative-based films. A focus on discernment regarding the personal, organizational, systemic, and global levels of leadership lends this courses use of narrative analysis and semiotic film analysis. However, students are encouraged to use whatever analysis styles they resonate with the most to delve into the elusive and complex emergence of leadership of the film and the making of the film. Through seeking understanding in dialogue with fellow learners, students are encouraged toward greater discernment of the person, the collective, and the context with regard to the dynamic systems involved in leadership. Film provides unique insights to investigate character and motive, as well as culture, allowing us to access meaning and significance through theoretical, analytic and dialogic inquiry. The course helps form in students the ability not only to be leaders, but in the words of Robert Frost, “awakeners.” Through the time spent viewing films and entering into discourse, we will become more sophisticated observers and practitioners of leadership as we seek to understand the essence of leaders through artistic representation.

LDRS 2370 Leading with Development in Mind (4 Credits)

Leadership is an emergent phenomenon predicated on relationships and power. It is imperative for leaders and leadership scholars to understand social construction to be sensitive to, recognize, and hopefully utilize generative power dynamics that influence individuals, collectives, and systems. Robert Kegan’s constructive development model aptly outlines the social constructivist epistemology and has been found to coach and develop more effective leaders and organizations for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) situations. The course itself is a deep dive into different methods using social constructivist epistemology and a constant evaluation, or reevaluation, or how different paradigms influence our social behaviors. While the structure appears to separate theory with practice, the deep connections between the two realize the applied praxis of a leadership philosophy. Beginning with an overview of the theory and epistemology of Robert Kegan’s cognitive development theory and social construction. The second half of the course will focus on integration of the theory into personal practice.

LDRS 2400 Leadership and Sustainability in Belize (4 Credits)

Every day, decisions are made by leaders in business, government, and non-profit settings that impact sustainability in its many forms. This course explores multiple meanings and interpretations of sustainability. The course location of Belize provides a perfect learning laboratory to examine how one country is attempting to balance the sometimes competing demands of economic, cultural, and environmental sustainability. Course activities include staying at a low-environmental impact conference center in the rainforest, visiting a model environmentally sustainable island community, hearing guest lectures from various country experts, and exploring Mayan ruins. Through these activities students examine the role that leadership plays in contributing to small and large scale sustainability efforts. Students must apply and receive instructor permission to register for this course.

LDRS 2420 Leadership in the Movement for Irish Independence (4 Credits)

Much can be learned from the journey toward Irish Independence. Through an intensive study of this movement, students will explore Irish history and culture with specific focus on the role leaders played in gaining independence. Students will visit historical sites in Dublin, Limerick, and Cork and learn about leaders and their legacies from multiple national experts. From these experiences, students will reflect upon and draw connections between historical rebellion movements and those of today. Priority for this course is given to leadership studies minors.

LDRS 2430 Leadership, Peace, and Conflict in Northern Ireland (4 Credits)

Much can be learned from the journey toward peace amidst the conflict in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Through an intensive study of historical events and their resulting sociopolitical outcomes today, students will gain a deep understanding of the role of leadership, peace, and conflict studies in Irish history. Students will visit multiple sites, explore Irish historical resources, and learn about leaders and their legacies from multiple national experts. From these experiences, students will reflect upon and draw connections between historical movements and those of today. Ireland provides the ideal context for deep study of understanding leadership through conflict and efforts for peace. The history of Ireland is a history of seeking independence, and many would say that complete independence was never truly achieved. Indeed, when the Irish Free State was declared in 1921, only 4/5 of Ireland became independent, with six remaining counties becoming a part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. A significant contingent of Irish Republicans disagreed with many provisions of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and started a Civil War lasting almost a year. Struggles for Irish independence continued in many ways, most specifically with “The Troubles”, through most of the 20th Century until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Today, Ireland maintains an open border with Northern Ireland and although peace in Northern Ireland is present, it remains tenuous with wounds that are still raw, and divisions that exist between Catholics and Protestants to this day. This course will focus on the period of the Troubles and examine how conflicts from the past inform current contexts for the leadership needs of our time.

LDRS 2440 Natures Lessons for Leadership (4 Credits)

What can we as human beings learn from nature? How do we lead in a way that is responsible to our vision and can echo out to our communities? Students will explore these questions together at the Kennedy Mountain Campus through an intensive hands-on approach. Grounded in theoretical perspectives such as nature’s principles for living, process leadership, and relational cultural theory, students will deepen their leadership practice through interactive exercises related to mindfulness, presence, and embodiment. Various activities, like art creation, using senses to connect with nature, and strengthening empathy through listening, students will explore the interconnection of humanity while deepening awareness to self and others.

LDRS 2701 Topics in Leadership (2,4 Credits)

This course introduces students to major topics in Leadership Studies that expand the parameters of the Leadership Studies program. Topics vary reflecting the interests and expertise of the faculty. The course is repeatable. Prerequisites: WRIT 1122 and WRIT 1133. Course open to Colorado Women's College students only.

LDRS 2911 The Job & Internship Search: Taking the Lead in Your Career Development (2 Credits)

This course is designed to give students the unique resources, skills, confidence and tools necessary to be successful in the job and internship search and develop a mindset for strong workplace excellence and leadership. The search process involves much more than simply submitting a resume in the current economy. Through in-class activities and assignments, students will understand workplace complexities, deepen self-knowledge around their abilities, strengths, and interests; and, integrate this information to develop a strong career action plan to successfully navigate their professional development. The course will include content delivered by Career & Professional Development professionals, employers, and alumni.

LDRS 2912 Careers and Leadership Development (2 Credits)

This course is designed to facilitate student’s career and professional development through self-reflection, industry knowledge, and building professional connections. Students will develop deep knowledge around their strengths and personal characteristics relevant to the world of work and how to leverage those unique abilities to successfully navigate future internship and work experiences, along with communicating their story and value add when connecting with employers. Through targeted exercises and experiential learning, including readings and assignments, students will learn how to increase their emotional intelligence, self-esteem, and confidence, which is vital to workplace and leadership success. Additionally, students will hear from local leaders and DU alumni to provide further training and insight on topics that promote effective decision-making and planning for lifelong career progression and development.

LDRS 2920 More than a Form: Adventures in Fellowships (2 Credits)

This course is designed to empower students to develop their personal narratives and to pursue “good-fit” fellowship competitions that create pathways to impact. Students will explore external fellowships, parse funding organizations’ criteria and priorities, and work through applications to tell a coherent narrative with attention to common application components such as personal statements; letters of recommendation; and reflections on leadership, service, and impact. Class sessions and assignments will guide students through reflection about interests and goals, telling the story of their experiences, and identifying and preparing for competitive fellowships that will help them drive change on the issues that matter to them. Students will gain a foundation for expanded knowledge and growth in line with the 4D Experience as well as practical tools and strategies for crafting competitive applications for external opportunities.

LDRS 3000 Capstone: Leadership Ethics (4 Credits)

This course completes the leadership studies minor as an undergraduate at DU. It is designed to help students think in a structured, reflective way about the philosophical and behavioral ethics as relates to inclusive leadership. Students will gain a greater understanding of their own and others’ ethical perspectives and develop stronger ethical decision making skills to navigate ambiguous situations and conflicting interests associated with future roles in society. A final leadership statement and code of ethics paper will allow students to summarize their learning, values and hopes for future leadership development and impact. Prerequisites: LDRS 2017, LDRS 2018, LDRS 2019, LDRS 2040, LDRS 2050, and LDRS 2060.

LDRS 3500 Ethics in Leadership (4 Credits)

To fully understand effective leaders, one must also appreciate and apply ethical perspectives and principles to leadership action. All forms of leadership communication involve ethical issues. This course is designed to increase students' understanding of the scope of ethical issues embedded in leadership activities, and to provide the opportunity to identify and discuss current ethical issues and challenges in our local to global world. Research on and application of ethical leadership are discussed in a course environment that encourages and supports the expression of diverse ideas, opinions, and beliefs. The overarching goal of the course is to learn how to ethically navigate ambiguous situations and conflicting interests in one's role as a leader. Prerequisites: LDRS 2517, LDRS 2518 and LDRS 2540 or LDRS 2541. Course open to Colorado Women's College students only.

LDRS 3650 Co-Learning as Co-Leading: Critical Reflection on Development Praxis in South Africa (4 Credits)

Co-Learning as Co-Leading: Critical Reflection on Development Praxis in South Africa is a virtual summer module offered over a period of four weeks. It is a 4-credit elective focused on Development, Leadership, and Gender in faith-based organizations in Southern Africa. The class is a collaboration between the University of Denver leadership studies department and the University of KwaZulu-Natal department of theology in Durban, South Africa. The course offers a space for reflection and deliberation to activists, community organizers, and students in leadership, theology, and community/non-profit development. It is designed as a productive learning space for students, researchers, and activists committed to harnessing feminist, queer, race-critical, and indigenous approaches to development in Southern Africa in general, and in faith-based NGOs in particular. The course uses a collaborative and decolonial learning approach that draws on the knowledge and methods of all the participants. The course will offer a mix of classroom learning, facilitation, community-based service-learning and application, and praxis reflection in collaboration with the Alan Paton Struggle Archives at UKZN. The course comprises of two sets of participants: (1) student-participant who will be doing the course as part of a university/ college degree, and (2) activists-participants who will do the course as a way to reflect on their development praxis as it relates to the organization or social movement they are attached to. Course participants will be collaborators and co-teachers/learners within the learning environment.

LDRS 3980 Internship (1-6 Credits)

The PLP Internship program provides individualized opportunities to gain valuable professional experience and build leadership skills. This hands-on program complements a student's academic major or a specified interest area that supports the student's leadership development through careful placement in community based learning. All three sectors of government, not-for-profit and private enterprise are available for internship learning opportunities.

LDRS 3991 Independent Study (1-5 Credits)

LDRS 3995 Independent Research (1-4 Credits)