The Archer Center is taking another step forward this semester by introducing a new professional leadership program, specifically designed for engineering graduate students. The “Professional Leadership Series for Graduate Engineering Students” program started this January.
This program is fully funded by an NSF award which was won through the Rensselaer Nanoscale Science and Engineering Initiative.
The award,won 18 months ago, was a partnership between the Archer Center and Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. The total of the award is $10 million including a fund of $20,000 per year for a five year period for the Archer Center.
“Knowing how important leadership training is for the graduate students in their career world gave us this idea to have this program and winning the award just opens up the road to make it real,” said Linda McCloskey, director of the Archer Center.
“This leadership program is part of our outreach and educational program. Our students will jump into the professional world once they graduate. They need all the leadership skills that they can get before going into that world,” said Professor Linda Schadler.
“The Archer Center and engineering school have been working together for quite some time. And they have proven their credibility in giving good leadership courses. That’s one of the reasons why I chose the center to co-operate with the us for this leadership program,” she continued.
This program is limited to only 20 people for each semester. It meets every Wednesday evening at 5:00 pm for two and half hours. The guest speakers include corporate engineers and academicians besides the Archer Center staff. The classes are corporate-style seminars on topics that include personal and team leadership development.
According to McCloskey, the class is purposely designed for a small number of participants. This is to maintain the quality of the course.
“The way the class is operated is a combined idea of the center and professor Schadler. We value her suggestion especially when it comes to areas related to engineering,” explained McCloskey.
This program will continue next fall and the following semesters until the funding expires.
