Becoming a Leader Along the Way: Embedding Leadership Training Into a Large-Scale Peer-Learning Program in the STEM Disciplines

Although many college students enter leadership programs with the express goal of developing leadership skills, some specialized leadership programs draw students who seek to gain expertise in a disciplinary area, with leadership development as a secondary goal. In the latter case, program developers face the challenge of generating enthusiasm among student participants for thinking and talking about leadership. This paper addresses the question of whether undergraduates can develop as leaders when that is not their explicit goal, chronicling the evolution of a program designed to do just that. Data collected through survey and interview research suggest that participating students do indeed develop as leaders in meaningful ways.