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The Undergraduate Leadership Teaching Assistant (ULTA) experience offers students a high-impact opportunity to develop, practice, and evaluate their leadership knowledge, skills, and abilities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine outcomes of the ULTA experience as a high-impact practice for students studying leadership. Weekly journal entries of eight ULTAs were analyzed to assess their perspectives on the experience. Findings revealed the ULTAs developed cognitive skills through the generation of mostly divergent discussion questions on the knowledge and comprehension level of the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitive Domain (Bloom et al, 1956). ULTAs applied their learning from the experience to both personal and professional roles and intend to model behaviors in seven skill areas: (a) communication; (b) active listening; (c) mentoring; (d) responsibility; (e) followership; (f) professionalism; and (g) collaboration.

To meet the demands for effective leadership, leadership educators should integrate high-impact practices for students to develop, practice, and evaluate their leadership knowledge, skills, and abilities. The purpose of this application brief is to describe how undergraduate leadership teaching assistant (ULTA) experiences can be a high- impact practice for undergraduates studying leadership. The ULTA experience at Texas A&M University in the Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications (ALEC) department was examined using the six characteristics purported by Kuh (2008) to describe effective high- impact practices: considerable time and effort to purposeful tasks, interaction with faculty and peers on substantive matters, increased likelihood of experiencing diversity, frequent feedback on performance, application of learning to different settings, and better understanding of self in relation to others. The ULTA experience can be a high-impact practice that provides leadership students with the opportunities to apply their leadership learning to their teaching roles and reflect on their experience to gain new leadership perspectives. Recommendations for implementing this practice include: purposeful interactions with ULTAs, feedback and assessment of experience, training, and a rigorous recruitment process.

The world of work is changing and creating challenges and opportunities for the employment inclusion of young people with disabilities. In this article, the perceptions held by young adults with disabilities regarding participation in the future of work are examined.

One-on-one interviews were conducted with Canadian young adults (ages 18–36 years) living with a disability. Participants were asked about their thoughts regarding the impact of the changing nature of work on their labor market involvement and career aspirations. A thematic analysis was performed to identify and examine emergent salient themes.

In total, 22 young adults were interviewed; over half held secure employment. Career aspirations and work-related decisions were primarily shaped by a participant's health needs. The future of work was seen as a more proximal determinant to employment. Digital technologies were expected to impact working conditions and create barriers and facilitators to employment. Participants who indicated being securely employed held positive expectations regarding the impact of digital technology on their work. Participants working precariously held negative appraisals regarding the impact of digital technologies on employment opportunities. The role of technological and soft skills was critical to participating in a labor market reliant on advanced technology. Participants reported barriers to developing job skills related to their disability and their work arrangements.

This research highlights the importance of considering changes in the future of work, especially the digital transformation of the economy, in the design of initiatives which promote the employment inclusion of young adults with disabilities. Despite the significance of the changing nature of work, supporting health needs and encouraging access to secure work arrangements also remain paramount.

The academic community is more fully integrating technology into the business it conducts. Online courses are becoming more and more popular. Popular culture can be a source of commonality among students that can be used to more effectively teach leadership in an online environment. This manuscript outlines the use of a group book review assignment to teach leadership while simultaneously fostering a sense of community among students learning about leadership in a primarily asynchronous environment.

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the learning experienced by second-year undergraduate students serving as peer mentors to first-year students within a leadership-themed living-learning community. A basic qualitative approach was used, with data collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with participants at the beginning and end of their year-term as peer mentors. The interview transcripts were coded using Fink’s (2003) taxonomy of significant learning, where lasting change is a consequence of the learning. Five of the six categories of significant learning were evident, suggesting that the experience of being a peer mentor within a leadership-themed living-learning community creates lasting change within the peer mentors. Additionally, this study reinforces Fink’s (2003) claim of the interactive rather than hierarchical nature of learning.

Mind mapping can be a pedagogical tool that helps students brainstorm how to organize information in a way that incorporates creative and active learning, as well as critical thinking. In this article, we describe the application of using mind maps in an undergraduate course focused on teaching leadership theory as an effort to help students think more holistically about how theories intersect with their lives. The assignment description, rubric, and details of the application are provided. Examples of ways students have organized their maps to integrate theories into their lives (e.g., based on themselves, organizations, or metaphors) are also included. Through this practice, we found that mind mapping leadership concepts to areas of students’ lives develop their ability to describe how leadership theories operate holistically in their life, rather than limiting their understanding to one or two popular theories. We recommend leadership educators consider mind mapping as a pedagogical tool to teach theories and other content that require understanding in a broader context.

The study sought to evaluate a state agricultural leadership program, Leadership Idaho Agriculture (LIA), according to the perceptions of program graduates. Of the 348 graduates from 1993-2001, 246 returned a completed instrument for a total response rate of 70.7%. Participants rated communication skills as the most frequently used skills and public speaking skills as the least frequently used skills emphasized within the LIA program. Participants perceived LIA to have the greatest impact in their career and their ability to set new goals in their careers. Participants reported that the four LIA program objectives were met with an above average success rate or higher but recommended the inclusion of content related to conducting business meetings and conflict management.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided leadership educators with a unique and perilous opportunity. The events of 2020 were profoundly impactful and traumatic for our students, but they also illustrate a level of visceral engagement with various leadership topics that is incredibly useful. In this article, we outline some of the pedagogical considerations for using a chaotic and trauma filled set of experiences to teach leadership concepts. Specific theories and topics areas are presented that represent the most likely intersection of the pandemic and leadership, and examples are included for use by practitioners.

This study sought to examine differences in the confidence level of Leadership Idaho Agriculture (LIA) graduates within six program areas in terms of their perceptions before and after participation in LIA. Of the 348 individuals included in the population frame, 246 individuals completed a then-post survey instrument for a total response rate of 70.7%. Significant differences were found between the before LIA and after LIA confidence levels in all aspects of each of the six major areas of LIA (agricultural awareness, networking, leadership, communication, professional development, and the legislative process).

The purpose of this study was to examine how undergraduate peer mentors at Texas A&M University perceive their development of leadership behaviors through their peer mentor experience. Participants were first- generation college students serving as mentors to first-generation college students at Texas A&M University. A qualitative approach was used to examine reflections from the peer mentors about their personal best leadership experiences as a peer mentor and their self-reported highest scored practice on the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (SLPI). This study is rooted in Kouzes and Posner’s (1987, 2002) Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership model. There were 33 peer mentors who participated in this study. Mentor reflections showed evidence of behaviors demonstrating all five of the exemplary leadership practices through serving as a peer mentor.