Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Higher Education Administration

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between life design and student leadership development at Bowling Green State University, a mid-sized, comprehensive public institution in Northwest Ohio. Life design was an institutional strategy used to increase student success and empower students with the tools and skills to design their college experience more intentionally and prepare for the next steps after graduation (Life Design, 2023). Life design is a creative problem-solving framework that empowers students to adopt design thinking mindsets and methods and apply them in their own lives to creatively solve problems (Burnett & Evans, 2016). Based on the literature, including research focused on Social Change Model and Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership, I suggested five main areas of overlap between life design and leadership: consciousness of self and others, collaboration, creative problem-solving, change, and innovation management. Utilizing Fall 2020 data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership, multiple student subgroups who were involved in various life design and leadership experiences were compared across various leadership and life design scales. This study was meaningful as it contributed empirical evidence to the emerging research topic of life design and suggested preliminary signs of a relationship between life design and leadership. Findings suggested that students connected to life design and leadership experiences had higher levels of leadership outcomes than students who did not participate in life design or leadership experiences across all six scales in the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership. Findings also provided evidence of increased life design outcomes for students in life design programs according to a prototype Life Design Capacity Scale. This scale was also a statistically significant variable within a logistic regression model as a predictor of a student's four-year graduation outcome, though t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Maureen Wilson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Margaret Adams Ed.D. (Other); Jessica Turos Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jacob Clemens Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2022, Educational Leadership

Programming for study abroad returnees is ripe for improvements, since most college students participating in education abroad programs return to their home campuses without strong support in processing their experiences. This study develops an understanding of how study abroad returnees two to three years later make sense of their experience. The Social Change Model for Leadership Development is used as a theoretical lens to analyze the data. Combining the Social Change Model and education abroad is a novel approach to strengthening different offices commonly found on U.S. college campuses. Though usually separate, education abroad and leadership development share common goals of aiding the college student in preparation for career and life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants, the data from which were collected and analyzed. The participants, all alumni of a mid-west public university, had participated on a semester long study abroad program within three years of being invited to participate. All of them had recently graduated or had begun their careers. The interviews were conducted and transcribed over the summer of 2020, and the data were analyzed through the lens of the Social Change Model. This study found that the data fit best with four of the seven values of the SCM—Common Purpose, Consciousness of Self, Congruence, and Citizenship. These important values can be used to help support on-campus programming for post-education abroad activities that may help students recognize their extracurricular gains from an abroad experience, while building a bridge between education abroad and leadership development programming.

Committee: Kathleen Knight Abowitz (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2013, Educational Leadership

Colleges and universities have a unique opportunity to develop leaders capable of addressing the challenges of tomorrow. Critical components of such leadership include understanding oneself, being able to navigate challenges, work across difference, and understand and adopt multiple perspectives. The ability of higher education to support the development of leaders who can address challenges can have a major effect on the future of our country and our world. This longitudinal study explored connections between college student leadership and the developmental capacities necessary to engage in effective leadership. The study used the Social Change Model of Leadership (SCM) (Higher Education Research Institute, 1996) and Self-Authorship Theory (Baxter Magolda, 2001) as frameworks to explore connections between leadership and developmental capacities. I used data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education collected between 2006 and 2009 in this dissertation study. I analyzed four years of transcripts for 22 students who had high quantitative gains on the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale over a four-year period. The sample was diverse with just under half of the students identifying as students of color. I conducted the data analysis for each of the participants by: 1) coding for SCM leadership values; 2) analyzing development toward self authorship across four years; 3) and coding for patterns in development and SCM leadership value shifts across four-years. The results of this study demonstrated two major findings furthering our understanding of leadership using the SCM. The first finding highlighted the various stages students go through as they move toward effectively demonstrating SCM leadership. The second major finding was that development was connected to all of the SCM leadership values and increasing student developmental capacities is a necessary component of leadership development. This study produced major implications for (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Marcia Baxter Magolda Dr. (Committee Chair); Kathleen Goodman Dr. (Committee Member); Judith Rogers Dr. (Committee Member); David Cowan Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Developmental Psychology; Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration