This grounded theory study aimed to understand the process of leadership identity development experienced by traditional-aged female undergraduate college students. The findings led to a model for leadership identity development consisting of four phases. Students' leadership identity development progressed from views of leadership as external to…

As Villanova University embarked on a new strategic plan in 2009, the Division of Student Life placed a renewed emphasis on co-curricular leadership education (Gigliotti, 2014, in press). This Application Brief will highlight one of the new student leadership initiatives, the Student Leadership Forum in Washington, DC. Referred throughout the…

This narrative inquiry study uses personal experiences as a method of ethnographic research among Black women student leaders. The collegiate life stories of six African American women undergraduates experiencing gendernoir racial battle fatigue are described and analyzed. Combined are participant journaling, lived experiential interviews, and…

This article reports a study based on A. W. Astin's (1984) involvement theory applied in residence halls at a public university in Hong Kong, China. The resident students who were involved as participants or student leaders in this study were found to be better developed in terms of leadership, career development, multicultural experience,…

This study examined the associations between undergraduate students' socioeconomic background (i.e., first-generation status and household income) and their participation as positional leaders at six large, public research universities. Results from logistic regressions predicting positional leadership in student organizations suggested that…

This exploratory study examined informal learning opportunities that exist within student organizations. The researchers specifically isolated academic organizations and the interactions between students and faculty that may occur in this context. Findings indicate that 81% of participants experienced interactions with faculty within the context…

The emergence of undergraduate students serving in peer leader or peer educator roles is relatively recent in the history of higher education. Peer leadership positions were first recorded in 1959 in the field of student services, specifically working with students entering college and living in residence halls. Beginning with the Hazen Report of…

With over 38 million U.S. youth (54% of children between ages 6 to 17) participating in organized sports each year, there is an ever increasing demand for entry-level youth sport leaders. To meet this leadership demand in organized youth sports, over 2.5 million adults volunteer to coach, yet less than 10% of these individuals have any formal…

This constructivist case study examined undergraduate student leadership development. Twenty-one student leaders, 13 females and 8 males, in a campus recreational sports department were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol. Seven broad themes: organizing, planning, and delegating; balancing academic, personal and professional…

This study explored the influence of strengths-based development on leadership practices among undergraduate college students while controlling for gender, years of leadership experience, and number of completed leadership courses using a quasi-experimental approach with a randomized control-group pretest-posttest research design. The sample…