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Leadership Learning, Service & Advocacy

Our goal in LL | S&A is to provide entry points for students to engage civically in order to develop and activate their leadership, community and advocacy capacities.

As a Pitt-Bradford student, you will have many opportunities to gain leadership skills, to volunteer, to connect with people on campus and off. All of that will help you become change agents to make the world more humane and just.

Prepare for a life of COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP

  • You will be courageous leaders who serve as change agents and make the world more humane and just.

Embrace PURPOSEFUL ENGAGEMENT as a way of life

  • You will enrich lives through empathy, leadership, advocacy, social transformation and service to others.

Leadership Learning, Service & Advocacy intentionally creates environments where relationships flourish, diverse ideas converge, and people discover a purpose greater than themselves. We are committed to providing transformative experiential learning, to access and success, and to service and leadership in the spirit of the GREATER GOOD. Our programs and consultations aim to educate and cultivate the next generation of leaders who have a strong sense of self-awareness, have the ability to work effectively with others, and who are civically and socially engaged.

We strive to meet our mission through a variety of curricular and co-curricular programs. We welcome students from all majors, class levels, and degrees of experience who wish to enhance their personal lives and the lives of others. We provide all students a unique opportunity to formally learn about leadership, service and advocacy while receiving invaluable, hands-on training that will assist them for a lifetime.

We believe that all persons have leadership potential and that their particular gifts, talents, and skills can be enhanced through education, training, and development. Furthermore, we believe that leadership is a process, not a position; therefore, the broad goal of our leadership learning programs is to promote a culture of engaged and ethical leadership across all facets of Pitt-Bradford’s campus.

Our programs utilize the following principles to guide leadership learning initiatives. Leadership is:

  • a discipline that can be taught and learned
  • interdisciplinary – it merges theory and practice
  • a process that is not solely defined by position, title or authority
  • ethical and just – it challenges the dominant perspective and seeks to break down systems of oppression
  • collaborative and inclusive 
  • can be practiced, applied, and demonstrated by everyone, everywhere
  • purposeful – it serves the common good – socially, civically, globally and environmentally

Contact Angie Wolfe, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Experiential Learning, for one-on-one guidance to help you in your development as a leader, an advocate, an upstander and a citizen.

  • Service and Advocacy Consultation: Get individualized support in establishing a new service opportunity, or let us help you find the right organization for service. Already engaged in service? Meet with Angie to process your experience, develop your on-site skills and take your skills to the next level for social change.
  • Leadership Consultation: Discuss your experiences and where you would like to go in your leadership development.
    • Understand your leadership style
    • Expand and improve your leadership capabilities
    • Identify opportunities to practice your leadership skills
    • Chart out a plan to develop leadership skills
    • Answer questions about leadership theories

HOW WILL YOU GET INVOLVED?

We understand the importance of promoting an institutional culture of service. Working together in service, we all benefit.  For many students, getting involved is one of their most empowering and memorable experiences at Pitt-Bradford.  Some students volunteer on an ongoing basis, supporting the work of local organizations or joining a service-related club or organization, while others embrace advocacy, raising awareness about causes ranging from health care to social justice, to civic engagement and democracy.  Service and advocacy can also be woven into the academic experience through course-based projects, internships or collaborative research.

Our engagement in the community is focused on addressing social and environmental justice issues. We find that the issues that we care about in the world are often connected and there are many points of intersection. Students engage with a wide variety of issues, and the ones that our students commit the most time to and develop the deepest partnerships with are in:

  • The Environment
  • Food Security
  • Housing & Homelessness
  • Race & Immigration
  • Healthcare & Education

Through direct service, critical reflection, education, and leadership, students will:

  • Connect direct service and community work with academic learning and professional goals/opportunities
  • Collaborate and connect with people with a wide range of identities, perspectives, values, and experiences
  • Identify and address instances of power and privilege, oppression and subjugation, and structures that promote injustice. Internalize ideals of pluralism, proximity, neighboring, and empathy

Through advocacy learning and initiatives, students will:

  • Demonstrate and articulate your sense of identity; meaning you will learn ways to acknowledge differences even if they are in deference to the beliefs and teaching of others  
  • Learn to listen deeply, express yourself cogently, while being respectful of yourself and others  
  • Understand there will be times that we will coexist, possibly be friends, while agreeing to disagree 
  • Learn to overcome your inhibitions, to forge strong relationship and break barriers of divisiveness that often exist between people

Options:

Changing times and adversity call for strong leaders: now more than ever!  Take time to develop your leadership skills with the following virtual resources:

Managing Self

Addressing Stress & Anxiety for College Students, Greater Good in Education
Adjusting Your Study Habits, U-M Center for Academic Innovation
How to Fight Stress: Learn Something New, Prof. Dave Mayer, Michigan Ross
I Spent a Year in Space, and I Have Tips on Isolation to Share, NY Times
Is This Crisis Disrupting Your Core Values? Here’s How to Refocus, Sanger blog

Noisli
Mix different sounds and create your perfect sound environment to work and relax.

RescueTime
RescueTime helps you understand where your time goes each day. Optimize your energy. And take back control of your day!

Managing Teams

The Coronavirus Challenge: A Navy SEAL’s Guide To Leading Through Adversity, Forbes
You Can Effectively Lead a Remote Team: Here’s How, Lindy Greer for Michigan Ross
Working Remotely Can Lead to a Higher Sense of Community, Lindy Greer

Leadership Talks

Popular Leadership Articles:

10 Leadership TED Talks to Watch:

Are you an organization outside the Pitt-Bradford community looking to have Pitt-Bradford students volunteer with you or support your work?

It is important to know that at Pitt-Bradford, student interest and demand drive the development of new programs and initiatives. Our students run projects, lead organizations, host events, organize drives, advocate for change, coordinate trips, rally support, stand up for social justice, teach others, and more in collaboration with community partners.

Service and civic engagement is also distributed and embedded across campus. LLSA is one of several other entities on campus advising and connecting students, staff, and faculty with community partners.

When reaching out, please keep in mind the following:

  • We encourage you to take note of Pitt-Bradford’s Academic Calendar.  In addition to their academic course load, many students are engaged in activities, research, internships, and jobs on or off campus.
  • Transportation to and from service opportunities may also be a concern for students. Please consider your organization’s accessibility via public transportation, walking, or biking. We encourage organizations to think creatively with scheduling and encourage the use of technology to allow students to engage with your organization from campus.
  • Organizations will need to provide student volunteers with appropriate orientation and supervision to enable them to best meet the needs of your organization. It is important to consider that students may not have exposure or previous experience with the populations and/or social issues your organization serves. 

Please email Angie Wolfe at awolfe@pitt.edu with the following information to share your request:

  • Name of organization
  • Name of organization's point of contact for service
  • Requested number of student volunteers
  • Brief description of the opportunity and/or event
  • Date and time of the service opportunity
  • Your internal deadline for securing volunteers