Leadership Academy (LD 291) is a new class offered at Blackburn College. It is being co-taught by Leadership, Law and Public Service department chair Dr. Shelly Peffer and political science professor Dr. Laura Wiedlocher. In total, the class will be three credit hours—two in the fall and one in the spring. The fall section will mainly consist of leadership training, and in the spring, high school students will be invited to campus to learn leadership skills from Blackburn students enrolled in the class. “We’re teaching our students not only to teach leadership but how to organize the one-day conference, getting guest speakers, logistics and all that kind of stuff,” Peffer said. The event is tentatively planned for late February 2018.
The leadership students will be reaching out to multiple high schools in the area to have teachers nominate high schoolers to attend the conference. They want the teachers to choose students who will be the best possible candidates and will benefit from this program. High school students in this program will receive a certificate of leadership that they can put on their college applications and resumes. According to Peffer, there is no other program like this offered in Illinois.
It is anticipated that the conference will be an annual event. Peffer hopes that she will be able to attain additional financial support for next year’s event. “We are looking to get donations to endow this in the future,” she said. Peffer is expecting 100 high school students to attend the conference in 2018.
Dr. Peffer and Dr. Wiedlocher plan the conference with the students.