LU Lead Accepting Applications

Students wishing to gain experience as a leader can enroll in LU Lead to hone their skills. This course is offered in both the spring and fall semesters.

“LU Lead teaches the students the basics of leadership, knowledge, and care through activities and topics that they can use in their daily lives, such as effective communication, public speaking, and how to work on a team,” Emily Robinson, LU Lead mentor and New Student and Leadership Programs assistant director, said. “My hope is that students who take LU Lead establish friendships and connections with those in their class, and that they leave the program with a better understanding of leadership as well as confidence and a sense of belonging.”

While leadership might be one word with a basic definition, the course aims to help students define it for themselves.

“Leadership has been defined in many different ways and means different things to different people,” Robinson said. “LU Lead teaches the basic components of leadership, but we have students define leadership in their own words to highlight the idea that they are in charge of their personal leadership journey.”

Alongside leadership, students learn about other skills as well, such as working as a team, conflict management, and communication.

“The cool part about LU Lead is that students gain skills that are both implicitly and explicitly taught,” Robinson said. “For example, we teach the five components of an effective team, but you learn a lot about teamwork through the projects and activities that we do each week, not just during that one lesson. The same can be said about public speaking, interpersonal communication, and conflict management.

“Students also develop confidence through the group discussions, and time management through homework assignments and in-class projects and activities.”

Robinson said that she includes public speaking in other activities, such as the True Colors activity to give students more practice in the area.

“I think that a lot of people, especially students, think that leadership is only reserved for people born with great public speaking skills,” Robinson said. “In high school and my freshman year of college, I was shy and cried when I attempted public speaking. I thought leadership was beyond me.

“After my experiences at Lamar University with LU Lead, previously the Leadership Certificate Program, and as an Orientation Leader, I discovered what being a leader really meant and it helped me grow into the person I am today. I want to help other students do that.”

Robinson said she was going to school to become a high school teacher “to help become the best version of themselves” but saw an opportunity here to do so. After teaching a semester of the course, she “knew that this has a stronger impact on students’ personal development”.

“My favorite lesson to teach is True Colors,” Robinson said. “True Colors is a quiz where you get to identify your leadership style. Like with any personality quiz, we recognize that it is not one hundred percent accurate, and our goal is not to put you in a box, but we do want to try to identify your natural leadership strengths, weaknesses, and patterns. A great leader understands that for a team to function well, it is important for all of the True Colors to be represented.”

Alongside understanding True Colors, Robinson said there are other traits of a great leader in comparison to a good one.

“Good leaders have knowledge of what they’re doing and care for those they’re doing it with, but great leaders understand that those two things look different for everyone and every team you’re on,” Robinson said. “You must constantly learn and adapt to your environment. You don’t have to have a leadership role to be a leader, you choose to be a leader in your everyday life and people will look to you for guidance and support.”

LU Lead applications are open now for the Spring 2025 semester, and can be found on LUHub or through the Office of Service and Leadership’s Instagram page, @lu_leadership.

Photograph from Emily Robinson