New Directions for Student Leadership Series Review - JCAPS Vol. 4 Issue 2
This review aims to introduce the New Directions for Student Leadership series and to offer insight on how the content in the series may be useful to campus activities professionals.
In today’s globally connected world, there is a need for inclusive, innovative, and informed leaders. Transforming leaders such as these are essential for initiating and realizing organizational and societal change (Astin & Astin, 2000; Burns, 1978; Dugan, 2017). “The call to action ... is that postsecondary leadership learning environments are materially important to the development of upcoming generations of societal leaders” (Chunoo & Osteen, 2015, p. 17). Through their daily observation of student learning and development and the delivery of services that improve the student experience, campus activities professionals (McCullar, Peck, DeSawal, Rosch, & Krebs, 2020, p. 6), are on the front line in the realm of developing students into these much-needed leaders.
Much of the leadership literature focuses on either a currently popular approach or scholarly research. Books designed to reach a wider audience often take a basic, simplified approach, utilizing a story or metaphor to aid the reader in applying the concepts to practice. At the other end of the literature continuum is research on leadership conducted in many organizational settings - business, non-profit, and education - but with less scholarship focused on youth and college students. While research findings offer implications for application, depending on the specific focus of the study as well as the context and participants, it can be a challenge for professionals to conceptualize application to practice. Recently there has been a renewed interest in college student leadership education and development. While there are numerous areas on a college campus where this learning and devel- opment may happen, such as classrooms, residence halls, or campus events and speakers, campus activities professionals are often at the forefront of developing such experiences. To prepare students to be the leaders campuses and society needs today and in the future, campus activities professionals (CAPs) must put intentionally designed, evidence-based concepts into practice. This review aims to introduce campus activities professionals to the critical insights on scholarship and application explicitly focused on the leadership development of youth and college students offered by the New Directions for Student Leadership (NDSL) series.
