Accepted students will participate in a structured leadership development program that begins freshman year and continues throughout the undergraduate curriculum. In response to the call for enhanced leadership development in nursing education, it is the only program in the United States to provide a comprehensive nursing leadership development program at the undergraduate level.

This program exposes students to a unique framework of diverse experiential and scholastic learning activities aimed at developing leadership potential. Certified coaching, professional mentoring, exposure to nurse leaders, participation in nursing research and development of principles and values rooted in a standard of excellence facilitate personal and professional growth. Through these activities students develop self-confidence, effective communication skills and a capacity for critical thinking to address complex issues and manage change. The interdisciplinary format exposes nursing students to a variety of perspectives and prepares them to advance interdisciplinary collaboration in the healthcare sector.

The nursing students in the program take a suite of professional leadership assessments like the Eq-I 2.0 emotional intelligence assessment (twice), the DISC behavioral assessment and the Strengths Finder 2.0. They participate in weekly leadership workshops and projects that require them to lead themselves and small teams, and they are assigned an ICF-certified executive leadership coach to guide them on their journey. By the time our students graduate, they will have received eight semesters worth of professional leadership development and critical feedback on their leadership effectiveness from peers, faculty, assessments and professional coaches.