Leadership Challenge Program

The Leadership Challenge program is an opportunity to develop your leadership skills. To take part, you simply need to have an interest in furthering your leadership experience - regardless of previous experience or involvement. The program focuses on developing leadership skills on a personal, group and community level, and looking at how leaders:

  • Challenge the process
  • Inspire a shared vision
  • Enable others to act
  • Model the way
  • Encourage the heart

(James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner, Leadership Challenge, Third Edition, 2002).

While you are in the program, you will build a student involvement portfolio demonstrating your leadership skills and involvement, and establish an excellent network of connections to students, college faculty and staff, and community members. You will learn more about yourself and the skills you need to become a better leader. 

To complete the challenge, you must participate in following four components:  

The Leadership Challenge program provides a variety of intrinsic rewards, but there are also some tangible rewards that lie at the finish line. 

Previous Challenge completers:

  • Earned over $150,000 in scholarship money
  • Transferred to a variety of schools, including the University of Maryland, College Park, Shippensburg University, the University of Baltimore, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Mount St. Mary's College.
  • Earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.6

Your student involvement portfolio can be used at transfer school interviews, scholarship applications, career and academic interviews, and as a supplement to your resume. At the end of the year after successfully completing the challenge, you will receive a certificate and be honored at the Student Leadership Banquet in May.  Graduating challenge completers also receive an honor pin and are recognized at commencement for their leadership development.

Learn

There are a variety of leadership development workshops and conferences offered throughout the semester. To complete the challenge, you must attend at least two workshops per semester, on topics like: 

  • Personal leadership styles
  • Team-building
  • Change-management
  • Myers-Briggs type indicator
  • Public-speaking and interpersonal communication
  • Diversity
  • Marketing your student leadership experience
  • Ethics
  • Civic engagement

Serve 

Service projects integrate leadership skills and principles with practical experience and provide an opportunity to interact meaningfully with the community. To complete the challenge, you must participate in at least one project during the academic year and complete a reflection form through the Center for Service-Learning. The service experience can be done in conjunction with a class, a student club or organization, an Academic Community, the Center for Service-Learning, or as an individual project (e.g., after school tutoring). 

While planning your service endeavor, keep in mind projects need to meet Campus Outreach Opportunity League's five critical elements  for true service:

  • Community voice
  • Education, orientation and training
  • Meaningful action
  • Reflection
  • Assessment
Lorrie Brown and Caroline Huck-Watson, 2006
Adapted from the Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL), 1991.
and Janet Eyler and Dwight Giles, Where's the Learning in Service Learning? 1999.

Lead

The third piece of the leadership challenge is campus involvement.  This can take place in a variety of forms from working on campus, serving on a college committee, or getting involved in campus events and activities. To complete the challenge, you must demonstrate significant campus involvement during your time at Carroll Community College. The student involvement portfolio is used to document this experience.   

Campus involvement may include: 

  • Involvement in student government, honor societies (Phi Theta Kappa, Alpha Beta     Gamma, Psi Beta), student clubs, Academic Community leadership
  • Campus committee work: search committees, academic council
  • Working on campus
  • Being an open house tour guide or new student orientation leader
  • Attending and anticipating in campus activities
  • Many others!

Student Involvement Portfolio

This final and most important piece of the challenge helps you to package your experiences and highlight your achievements. It gives you an opportunity to record all of your accomplishments from your time at Carroll including your academic achievements, leadership experience, campus involvement and career readiness. Portfolios are different for each individual; likewise, your portfolio will be a reflection of you, which you will have an opportunity to share at the end of the year. Review more information about the Student Involvement Portfolio.

Up for another challenge? If you have successfully completed the first year of the Leadership Challenge, the Advanced Challenge program offers a more in-depth look at leadership theories, skills and development.