Each student completed requirements in seven areas. The elements of these components may be curricular, co-curricular, or other activities inside or outside of the college completed while a Wartburg student.

Academic component
The student will complete a minimum of five academic courses:

LCP Plan - Sample PDF
Students interested in earning a certificate in leadership develop an individualized plan that articulates how s/he intends to meet the requirements of the program within a specified time-line developed by the student. Faculty of the Institute for Leadership Education and the student’s academic advisor review the plan. While not binding, it is assumed that the plan will serve as a blueprint for the student’s progress toward completion. The LCP plan can be defined and tailored to each student’s interests.

The individualized plan is most often completed as part of LS115: Exploring Elements of Leadership. But the student may develop a plan at any point during his/her Wartburg career as long as s/he is able to meet the requirements of the LCP.

Initiative component - Sample PDF
Leadership requires individuals to take the initiative to help define their own destiny. Students demonstrate initiative in some substantive way that is consistent with the Wartburg College definition of leadership. This may be undertaken through curricular or co-curricular activities, or outside of Wartburg College. Examples might include, but are not limited to addressing an identified issue or need by organizing and/or implementing action, organizing a formal campus group or club, or organizing an off campus activity or event. The student will prepare a reflection paper that articulates the nature of the initiative undertaken and how it is consistent with elements of leadership.

Difference and diversity component - Sample PDF
Leadership requires individuals to appreciate differences among people as necessary assets, not liabilities. It also requires individuals to think outside their traditional paradigms. To help foster this perspective the student will have at least one significant experience where s/he is exposed to an environment that is different from his/her own. This experience may be curricular, co-curricular, or independent of the College. For example, study abroad, Wartburg West, and off-campus May Term courses. The experience intended to satisfy this requirement should be substantively different from the student’s own culture. Upon completion of the experience, the student will write a reflection paper articulating how this experience contributes to his/her understanding of leadership.

Group work component
Leadership must be demonstrated in a group context. Therefore, each student must demonstrate the capacity to work effectively within a group toward a common goal that serves a community interest. The student’s role need not be a formal position of leadership within the group, but must be a demonstrable contribution that the individual has made to the group goal. The student will keep a journal of this experience to be included in the portfolio. The journal will identify student understanding of initiative, vision, sustainability, and personal growth as elements of leadership. This understanding may be based on the student’s own leadership or shared leadership, or the leadership of others in the group.

Service component - Sample PDF
“Taking responsibility for our communities and making them better through public action” requires that we appreciate lives of service and leadership as mutually reinforcing enterprises. Effective service is not only service to others, but simultaneously service to one’s self by how the experience helps enrich us personally as human beings. Service in this context is not altruistic because the service providers is also the beneficiary of the service experience.

Each student undertakes a service activity and completes a paper that reflects how the activity contributed to his/her understanding of leadership. The reflection paper is included in the leadership portfolio.

Leadership summary - Sample PDF
The student prepares a personal resume that demonstrates their individual leadership experiences, and a summary reflection paper as the final component of the Leadership Certificate Program. These elements will demonstrate connection of curricular education (courses) with co-curricular education (experiences); integration of learning from one knowledge domain to another; evidence of application of knowledge and skills gained within the context of the college experience; and reflection on what the student has accomplished as a human and a citizen.