After being a member of the First-Year Honors Learning Community at Minnesota State University Mankato during my freshman year of college, I applied to become a student leader in the program as a Learning Community Coordinator (LCC) for the following year. I was accepted into the program and served in this position for three years as the Exploring Education LCC. As the leader of this learning community, I worked with three generations of first-year college students majoring in secondary education. My responsibilities included holding individual meetings, study sessions, and weekly events for the members of my learning community that allowed them to become familiar with campus and their field of study so that they could transition easily from high school into college. 

 

Serving as a Learning Community Coordinator allowed me to fulfill Levels 3 & 4 of the Values section in the Leadership competency. As an LCC, I worked independently most of the time with the members of my learning community. However, every week, I would meet with my Graduate Assistant (GA) supervisor and the rest of the LCC’s in my cohort to discuss the state of our learning communities: our progress, including successes and challenges, throughout the week. These meetings gave me a broad view of the different types of leadership styles we had within our group. Although we were all doing the same job, our approaches- and thus our results- were very different in each of our learning communities. For example, while some LCC’s were more authoritarian and liked being the sole decision-makers in their learning community, others liked including everyone’s input, which is why they would hold constant meetings and delegate tasks between their members. This perspective allowed me to evaluate effective and non-effective leadership styles within our group, which taught me what to do or not do as a leader. Working as an LCC also allowed me to put my recently-found leadership strengths and values into use. As a strategic person, I created a well-organized action plan every year for my learning community which ensured that my students had all the experiences they needed to be successful in their first year of college. I also leaned on my developer side to motivate my students, show them their potential, and foster growth in them. 

 

Although my experience as a leader has increased dramatically through this position, I still have much to learn about working with teams outside of non-academic settings. Regardless, this experience has allowed me to build a tool-box of successful leadership methods and practices that I can confidently transfer to other leadership positions in the future. 

 

Below is a picture of the 2016-2017 cohort of Learning Community Coordinators at MSU Mankato. There is also an in-depth reflection I wrote of this experience after completing my third and last term as a Learning Community Coordinator.