Forces for Positive Change: Preparing Leaders for the 21^st Century in an Undergraduate Honors Program Open Access

Leadership education is offered in myriad ways at many institutions of higher education (Borgese, Deutsch, & Winkler, 2004). This article highlights the West Chester University Honors College (WCUHC), a highly selective, four-year program for undergraduate students. The WCUHC instituted a liberal education, interdisciplinary approach to leadership development that emphasizes the application of leadership through scholarship and service. WCUHC envisions that leadership involves a shared responsibility for creating a better world in which to live and work which manifests in a passion to engage others in bringing about purposeful change. One major challenge was designing a program that meets WCUHC goals while still working within the constraints of the larger state university system (14 schools total). The following article outlines a program that meets all of these important goals: leadership development using liberal education while working within larger institutional goals, an interdisciplinary perspective to leadership development, and the meaningful application of leadership skills in the classroom and in the community through scholarship and service.