Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Floyd, Deborah L.

Thesis/Dissertation Co-Chair

Maslin-Ostrowski, Patricia

Abstract

Collegiate leadership development opportunities that enhance student’s leadership skills are on the rise. This study sought to understand how students perceive their own leadership development prior to entering college and at an institution that has prioritized leadership development in recent years. Through this single-case study, 51 undergraduate student leaders completed a questionnaire that resulted in a descriptive student leader profile and open-ended responses. From those 51 students, 14 were a part of focus groups. There were three focus groups in total with four, seven, and three participants respectively. From the 14 participants, five volunteered for individual interviews to identify their perceptions of their leadership development in their own words. The research questions for this study were: What are the inputs and environmental influences that shape college students’ leadership development output from the student perspective; and, how do college students describe and understand their leadership development? The descriptive profile and close-ended responses are reviewed in chapter four and report four major findings. The first finding was “Mom made me do it”: The Influence of Family and Experiences Precollege, and the second finding was The What and Who Behind These Students’ Leadership Development in College: Purposeful Experiences and People. The third finding was The Why Behind These College Students’ Engagement in Leadership Development, which encompassed four themes to describe the reasons these students’ are interested in leadership development: encouragement from others, aspirations, self-development, and motivation to support causes they have grown to want to serve and for which they want to develop. The fourth finding was Soft Skills - Not Clear in the Terminology of These Student Leaders, Clear in Their Behaviors and included ways of defining soft skills and the exemplification of student leaders’ soft skills. Conclusions and recommendations are offered in chapter six including the proposal of a new model, Closing the Loop in College, developed from the pattern of findings that emerged in this study inclusive of reflective meaning making in college as essential for these leaders’ development.

Extent

246 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00004987

Format

pdf

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