At Kent State University, leadership can look very different depending on where you’re standing. In some classrooms, it can be defined by taking the lead on a group project. In others, it’s communicating with classmates or learning how to make collaborative decisions within a team. Across the university, leadership can take on a variety of meanings.
Kent State offers roughly 30 classes in the course catalog with the word “leadership” in the title, providing students with tailored opportunities to develop skills in individual programs that will extend beyond the classroom and into their future industry-specific careers.
Kent State Today sat down with instructors across the university to find out how programs are defining and teaching leadership. First stop: the Pepsi Leadership Center.
“The way that I like to look at leadership is kind of the choice that we make every day,” Austen Shipley, assistant director of the Pepsi Leadership Center, told Kent State Today. “It’s not necessarily just the positions that we hold, but it’s how we act and the actions we take and how we interact with one another.”
At the center, students are highly encouraged to recognize that leadership itself does not always require a formal position. Everyday choices and interactions can just as well make a difference, helping students build confidence in their ability to lead.
In the College of Public Health and Health Sciences, students can broaden their understanding of leadership through Principles of Public Health Leadership. Rob Kollin, lecturer; Laurel Tomi, associate lecturer; and Matthew Stefanak, part-time instructor, shared their perspectives on how leadership connects to public health, collaboration and serving communities.
“The purpose of public and population health is to maximize the health, well-being and opportunity for all, while minimizing preventable suffering and inequalities for the community,” Kollin said.
Tomi emphasized that leadership is more than holding a management position. “Just because you’re a manager doesn’t mean you’re a good leader,” she said. Drawing from her experience in healthcare facilities, Tomi described how a nursing assistant without a management title could still bring colleagues together, take initiative and help the team.
Stefanak highlighted the importance of helping others succeed, rather than solely prioritizing individual accomplishments. “It may be an academic degree, but we are training you to lead and manage public health programs or be data scientists and to help you grow with your team,” he said.
Just down East Main Street, the marketing and management programs in the Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship offer courses such as Sales Force Leadership and Dynamics of Leadership, which explore how leadership can be developed and practiced in a business context. Instructors emphasized that leadership involves more than holding a position of authority or delegating tasks.
Kelly Knapp-Blay, associate lecturer of marketing, highlighted the importance of developing a team, trusting others and creating an environment where people can contribute their ideas. “The most successful leadership I’ve found is when I find people that were smarter than me,” Knapp-Blay said.
James Ferguson, part-time faculty in the management program, noted that ethical decision-making and integrity demonstrate effective leadership. “To me, the best kind of leaders are people who are thoughtful while also kind and have character, not people who just talk a lot,” Ferguson said.
In the center of campus, the newly established College of Honors and Global Education, comprising both Honors Education and Global Education, offers the Honors Leadership Academy, which provides students opportunities to explore leadership through community engagement.
“I think leadership is more about learning and listening and then working with others to come up with positive solutions to an issue,” Erin Ahrens, Honors Leadership Academy instructor, said.
Through a selective process, the academy enables participants to travel to communities outside Ohio, identify local needs and take action to help those areas. Through hands-on service, students learn to put their leadership skills into immediate practice.
“I really want them to understand that leadership can look different, that you don't necessarily have to be loud,” Ahrens said. “I think sometimes it's learning and listening and taking other people's opinions and acting on them, so kind of being a representative.”
In the College of Nursing, classes including Integration of Leadership and Management in Nursing allow students to discover leadership within the healthcare industry. Kimberly Haag, lecturer in the Accelerated Second Degree Bachelor of Science in Nursing concentration, emphasized that leadership is intertwined with everyday responsibilities, including impactful decisions made while nurses care for patients.
“We emphasize that every nurse is a leader through their clinical decision-making,” Haag said.
Through multiple patient simulations, students across Kent State's campuses get to practice these skills in a setting that mirrors real-world situations. Haag explained that students need to be able to manage several patients with competing needs while still working as a single nurse.
This requires students to prioritize care, recognize changes in patients' conditions and communicate effectively with others. Afterward, faculty-led group discussions give students a chance to reflect on their decisions, identify areas for improvement and consider how to apply what they learned to future patient care situations.
“Their first day on the floor, they're going to be leaders,” she said. “We want our students to develop confidence in that clinical judgment piece, patient advocacy prioritizing, delegating and utilizing communication skills.”
Through these clinical experiences and simulations, students practice making important decisions quickly, carefully evaluating data and working with others in patient-care settings.
On the south side of Kent Campus, Kent State’s ROTC programs for the Army and Air Force offer courses that assist students in developing leadership skills for future military service. In Aerospace Studies, the Team Leadership Fundamentals class introduces students to leadership and team building. “Really, we’re just working to build someone that people can trust. That’s what a leader is for us,” Dustin P. Moore, faculty in aerospace studies, said. “The big key takeaway is we’re trying to develop a leader of character.”
Through leadership labs and other hands-on experiences, cadets practice problem-solving, critical thinking and taking responsibility for their decisions.
In Military Science Leadership Development courses, students study and apply leadership fundamentals, Army values and ethics and personal development. “I hope students leave understanding that leadership is a skill they can develop through practice, reflection and feedback,” Major Monte J. Bailey, assistant professor of military science in Kent State’s Army ROTC program, said.
As they advance through the program, upper-division cadets also take leadership roles by training and guiding younger cadets.
Across campuses, clinics and fields, leadership at Kent State is less about standing at the front of a room and more about how Golden Flashes choose to show up for others. Long after leaving the university, these students will continue to define what it means to lead, guided by character, grounded in academic foundations and ready to meet whatever the future holds.
