The Leadership Minor
The Leadership Minor believes that leadership education is meant to develop aware and accountable leaders who work through collective action to unlearn and reshape self and systems, address power dynamics, and live in possibility toward creation of an equitable, sustainable, and liberated world.
Our Vision: What we aspire to do
The Leadership Minor cultivates leaders whose practices are equitable, sustainable, and committed to the liberation of all.
Our Mission: What we do
The Leadership Minor supports students' ability to lead toward collective liberation by analyzing systemic power imbalances, evaluating multiple leadership frameworks, building collaborative leadership skills, and developing their leader identities.
Key Values of Collective Liberation
The Center for Racial Justice in Education explains that “collective liberation acknowledges that multiple oppressions exist, and that we work in solidarity to undo oppression in ourselves, our families, our communities, and our institutions, in order to achieve a world that is truly free.”
Harper and Kezar (2021) define the key values of collective liberation as:
- Liberation
- Power & oppression acknowledgement
- System challenging
- Storytelling
- Support networks and fellowship
Strategic Partnership
The Leadership Minor’s strategic partnership within the University of Minnesota is core to its identity and mission. The conceptual idea to create the minor originated from an Office of Student Affairs (OSA) assessment of student needs and interests related to leadership development. Housed within the Office of Student Affairs, with the Office of Undergraduate Education as an academic partner, the Leadership Minor uniquely blends academic vigor and student development.