BA 305
LEADERSHIP ALASKA: MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Spring ‘09
Instructors:
Susan Herman, other instructor TBA
Phone: ffsjh@uaf.edu x1939 for SH, other instructor contact info TBA
Office Hours: SJH Tuesdays and Thursdays 11 a.m.-12 noon, and after class; Other instructor
office hours TBA If our respective office hours aren’t convenient for you, please phone or e-mail
for an appointment.
Texts:
 One Day, All Children . . .: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I
Learned along the Way. Wendy Kopp. New York: PublicAffairs, 2003.
 Level Three Leadership, 4th Edition, James Clawson, Prentice Hall Pearson 2009
 Other readings as assigned.
Course Description:
BA 305 (4 credits) is for Alaska Scholars, Honors Scholars and members of the National Society
of Collegiate Scholars to participate in a leadership seminar and practicum which will involve
building community, developing networks, learning leadership theories, understanding civic
responsibility, and creating an action project through which the student becomes a leader.
Goals of the Course are to:
 Deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of community-based problem solving in
order to provide our state with informed and committed leaders for the future.
 Develop a sense of responsibility among scholars to contribute to their community by
studying the problems and issues in the State of Alaska.
 Demonstrate awareness among students of the importance and potential impacts of their
leadership in the state.
 Facilitate students’ exposure to recognized, effective leaders of Alaska who inspire social
action and change.
 Develop leadership capacity within the state by providing training through hands-on
experience, activities, study, and personal reflection.
 Provide students with a solid background in the literature on leadership.
 Allow each student to develop his or her own emerging leadership philosophy.
Outcomes of the Course: Students will
 Develop project management skills.
 Develop, complete and present a leadership project at the university, in Fairbanks or in
their home communities.
 Work with a recognized state leader/mentor.
 Network with state leaders in pursuit of their leadership project.
 Learn about issues of high priority affecting Alaska.
 Meet state and community leaders who offer guest seminars on leadership.
 Learn and apply leadership theories.
 Assess and develop leadership styles.
We will study theories of leadership and group dynamics, along with issues of civic responsibility
and their application to providing formal and informal leadership of groups on campus as well as
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leadership of groups in the community setting-- through readings, lectures, field trips, classroom
discussions, activities and cases, and field-based learning. The course addresses topics such as
group dynamics, conflict management, decision making, power and influence, understanding
leadership behaviors and styles, and diagnosing which leadership behaviors work best under
given situations.
 Our course is classroom- as well as field-based. We will spend some time in community
service, and some time on off-site visits to relevant events on campus or in the
community. These activities will be in addition to regular class meetings.
 Class will meet once a week for three hours, sometimes as a whole, and sometimes in
sections of 12-15 students. Faculty will facilitate the classes and, along with the students’
mentors, will serve as project advisors to the students and will regularly meet with these
students individually to check on their progress.
 In early May, students will present their leadership projects to community leaders and
hand in their final reflection papers.
 Students will attend a final barbeque for all student, faculty and staff participants, as well
as community leaders and dignitaries.
STUDENT SUPPORT: UAF is committed to equal opportunity for all students. If you have a
documented disability, please let us know within the first two weeks of class, and we will work
with the Office of Disability Services to make the appropriate accommodation. If you are the
first in your family to attempt a four-year college degree, and/or eligible for Pell grants, you have
opportunities for tutorial and other forms of support from the Office of Student Support Services.
We will collaborate with the Office of Disability Services and/or the Office of Student Support
Services to make your educational experience in our class as positive as possible. Check the
following website for further information. http://www.uaf.edu/advising/learningresources/
GRADING SCHEME: You can estimate your grade throughout the year by dividing the
number of points you earned by the total number of possible points for each assignment. We are
operating on the +/- grading system. Your grades will be computed as follows:
A+=97-100
A=94-96
A-=90-93
B+=87-89
B=84-86
B-=80-83
C+=77-79
C=74-76
C-=70-73
D+=67-69
D=64-66
D-=60-63
F=59
Please note: you will receive an informal, preliminary grade at the end of the first semester.
Your transcript will show a Deferred Grade which will NOT affect your GPA or your opportunity
for financial aid. Your official, final grade will show up on the spring transcript, and this grade
will count toward your fall semester GPA.
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On time Attendance 10 points per class.
Personal assessment 50 points
Assurances of Preparation (AoP) assess your level of preparation for class. These can
be in the form of an individual quiz, a group quiz, or a graded Q and A. Up to 25 points
each.
Active participation in classes, discussions and leadership retreat activities: 300 points
Mentor Log This is a record of each encounter with your mentor. Each entry should be
dated: there should be a brief description of the encounter, and a brief comment about
your reactions to the encounter. 50 points
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Press Release. This assignment is in preparation for designing your leadership project.
50 points
Leadership Project This is the major requirement of the course. You will determine a
project you would like to plan and implement during the course of the semester either on
campus, in Fairbanks, or in your home community. 500 points Broken down as 100
points for initial project plan, 250 for project implementation, 50 for presentation, 100
for portfolio documentation
Blackboard Discussions If a class is over before we have fully explored a topic, we will
continue our discussion on the Blackboard discussion board on-line. Up to 100 points
Leadership Workshop Divide into teams of 5, every team develops an interactive
workshop on one aspect of leadership. 200 points awarded for creativity and
information; up to 50 points awarded for active involvement in planning and
implementation, to be determined by team members in a peer and self-evaluation
process.
Leadership Book Synopsis. Choose from an approved book list a leadership text.
Summarize the book chapter by chapter, and make enough copies of your synopsis for
distribution to each member of the class. You will be asked to present the key points
from the book. 100 points.
Final Summary Reflection paper. This is an 8-10 page summary of your own
leadership philosophy, using course materials, insights, experiences and readings to
inform your perspective, and concluding with what you intend to do with the learning and
leadership experience you had in this course. 100 points
Participation in and 2-page reflection paper on one student leadership event during the
academic year. Attendance at additional events will earn 20 extra points. 50 points
Class citizenship or “Delight” (see description below) up to 50 points
DETAILS OF ASSIGNMENTS:
We will discuss each of the assignments in detail in class for those of you who wish to have more
structure. However, it is important to note that leaders deal constantly with ambiguity, and you
must learn to be comfortable with not knowing every aspect of what you must do. It’s your
challenge to get the information you believe is missing, and to work with the information that is
provided.
Introductory Assignment: Post on Blackboard at noon on Friday:
1. Review course goals described in the syllabus.
2. List your reasons and your personal goals for taking this course.
3. Describe how you will help yourself meet your personal goals.
4. Describe what you need from me and your classmates in order to help you meet these goals.
5. Review posted introductory assignments and make written notes about commonalities and
unique aspects.
We will discuss these at our next class meeting and determine how to create the best possible
learning experience for each of us. We will achieve our collective goals through the readings,
discussions, lecturettes, case study analysis, experiential assignments, and the class change
project, as well as through individual and group work.
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Personal assessment. We succeed when we use our talents/strengths to create the realities we
desire. Recall and reflect on your experiences of success, your best performances, and your peak
moments. List a few of these. With these experiences in mind, please write a paragraph on each
of the following questions, and post your assignment in the Discussion Board Introduction to the
Class on Blackboard for your classmates to review:
1. What is my typical energy level? What situations inspire my greatest energy?
2. Do I work better slowly or quickly and why?
3. Do I work best alone or in teams and why?
4. Do I prefer to lead or follow and why?
5. How are my listening skills? How can I improve on them?
6. Do I like to plan carefully beforehand or just jump in and figure it out as I go along?
7. Do I like recognition and acceptance? For what sorts of things, and when?
8. How do I react to criticism? What’s the best way to give me feedback?
9. What are my strengths? How do I use them to contribute to my/my group’s success?
10. What are my limitations? How do they affect my/my group’s progress?
11. Where do I need to improve?
Mentor Log: The purpose of the mentor relationship is two-fold: you will learn from your
mentor and gain his/her support and guidance on your leadership project; and you will nurture a
relationship that will have potential important value for you as you approach your professional
goals. You will develop a list of questions or issues you wish to discuss on line with your
mentor, and you will be expected to be in touch with your mentor once a month to pose these
questions or issues, and to dialogue. Save all correspondence… yours to the mentor and the
mentor’s responses to you. Each month, write a one-page reflection on your reactions to the
response. Be orderly… keep a file on the mentorship aspects of the course. Have an agenda for
each e-mail, and specific goals for each. Be methodical… log every mentor contact with date,
time, and topics discussed, reactions to the encounter, specific things learned. Be interested…
ask about him or her. Be proactive… you are in charge of initiating and following up, and if the
mentor doesn’t respond after a week, you’re in charge of following up again. Be reactive… leave
space for your mentor to ask some questions and get involved. Be professional… in speech (like,
you know what I mean, like) and in dress if you should happen to arrange an in-person meeting.
Press Release: In preparation for planning your own project, write your own press release.
Fantasize that you have designed and completed a project that will benefit you, the University,
and/or the community, and write a press release describing what you did and how you did it; and
what the implications/benefits are to the stakeholders. This press release should be no more than
one crisp, concise, clear page.
Leadership Project: This is the capstone experience of the course. Students will determine a
leadership project which will be initiated during the course of the semester and presented at the
end of the course to an audience of distinguished leaders from throughout the Fairbanks
community. Class meetings will involve regular updates of progress on the projects. Questions to
be asking yourself as you start thinking about your project are: What’s a need? Who else is
working on meeting that need? Can I partner with others to work on it? What could go right?
What could go wrong? How will I define success? How will I build spirit in the group working
on this project?
Leadership Workshop Assignment. In teams of 5, create an interactive workshop/presentation
that will be memorable and that illustrates what you’ve learned about leadership (or on one of the
five challenges of leadership as posed by K and P). Each group offers a workshop, presents it and
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debriefs it. We will collect all the designs in a “book”. Steps to fulfilling this assignment are
below:
1. Write criteria for a good workshop, a good debrief, a good system of evaluation and good
hand-outs
2. Pick a leadership topic and research it
3. Prepare the workshop
4. Deliver the workshop
5. Debrief the learning
6. Evaluate the workshop
7. Evaluate the work of your peers. (Give peer feedback). Make room for feedback on the
feedback
Book Synopsis: Choose either the biography/autobiography of a recognized world leader; or
choose a text from an approved list of leadership readings. If you choose the biography, write a
synopsis of your leader’s book and create a list of questions you wish you could ask that leader
and a list of responses that, based on your knowing about this person, you imagine he or she
might respond. If you choose the text, write a chapter-by-chapter summary of the key points, and
write a review of the book… why you liked/didn’t like it, what you got/wished you’d gotten from
it, what you learned from the text that you could apply to your leadership project.
Final Summary Reflection Paper: You will write a final summary paper at the end of the year,
discussing your beliefs about leadership, how you reached them (evidence, why you believe
them), an analysis of your present leadership potential and attainments, and your outline of the
activities and experiences which you anticipate will bring you to the next level and, finally, your
present definition of leadership. Include and cite symposium sources, guests, assigned readings
and other materials.
Class Citizenship or Delight: In the world today, you can simply satisfy your team
members/classmates. With satisfaction, you merely “meet” expectations. With citizenship aimed
at delight, you “leap delightfully” beyond the anticipated. How to leap, in what directions and by
how much, is all up to you. In fact, the more others leap the further you may need to out-leap
them. The only limitation on our attempts to delight each other in this class is to keep it
professional. Is this concept clear? We are usually delighted by all aspects of superb performance
and thoughtfulness. At the end of the course, you will fill out a “delight” questionnaire,
explaining whatever you may have offered as extra to the class during the term. We ask that you
not be bashful to include your contribution, and in return we’ll decide if they fit. Delight is
basically showing thoughtful organizational citizenship and caring… seeing what would make
things better and taking initiative to do it.
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COURSE OUTLINE
Readings are to be completed on the day they are due, and students are to be prepared to
discuss the readings. Assignments will be made of dates for leadership book synopsis as
books and dates are chosen. This outline will change over time. Please see the final
notation.
RETREAT:
2 days before start of winter semester. Introduction to the course, the instructors, and fellow
students. Review the syllabus. Build our definition(s) of leadership. Workshop on project
planning. Workshop on grant writing.
Week 1
An exercise to generate discussion on our concept of “vision,” what it is, why it’s important and
how to get one. File your introductory exercise responses in the Discussion Section of
Blackboard.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
Week 2
Read all the introductory assignments and come up with one question you’d like to ask each of
your classmates. Study chapters 1-2 of the text.
“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” Japanese Proverb
Week 3
Assigning mentors. Discuss mentor interview questions and leadership book. Study chapters 3-5
of the text. Continue project planning, and begin scoping the leadership project
“Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A
soul generated by love.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Week 4
Study chapters 6-8 of the text. Determine leadership projects. Take the MBTI. One never
notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” Marie Curie
Week 5
Study chapters 9-12. Press Release due. Study chapters 9-12 of the text.
“One never notices what has been d
“Any leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.”
Golda Meir
Week 6
Study chapter 13. Ch. 14 is optional. Read and be prepared to discuss One Day All Children.
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.” Benjamin Franklin
Week 7
Study chapters 15-16 of the text “One man with courage makes a majority.” Andrew Jackson
Week 8
Study chapters 17-18 of the text. First draft of Leadership Project Plan due. This plan includes
the grant application.
“When things are steep, remember to stay level headed.” Horace
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Week 9
Study chapters 19-21 of the text.
“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the
dog.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
Week 10
Book Synopsis due
“Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where the fruit is?” Frank Scully
Week 11
Study chapters 22-23 of the text
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and
listen.” Winston Churchill
Week 12
Study chapters 24-25 of the text
“The will to do, the soul to dare.” Sir Walter Scott
Week 13
Review Appendix Leadership Theories in the text
“Courage is grace under pressure”. Ernest Hemingway
Week 14
Workshop Presentations
“You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Abraham Lincoln
Week 15
Mentor logs due. Final reflection paper due. Practice session for project presentations.
“We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.” Helen Keller
Final Exam Week
Project Presentations, banquet.
“Politicians never made decisions until they must. Leaders make decisions early and prepare to
implement them.” Mark Hamilton
There needs to be a balance between structure and flexibility in this course design, in order
to take advantage of the unique learning opportunities that emerge from each individual
group. We reserve the right to modify the course outline. We will consult the class in
advance of making any
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