A central tenet of Miami University's mission and the goals of President David Hodge, student leadership development has become an increasingly important part of the Office Student Affairs and higher education. Nowhere is this focus more obvious than in the intentional leadership programming within the residence halls of the University. One of these residential communities, the CHANGE Living, Learning Community (LLC). works with first-year students to provide them with curricular and co-curricular experiences and to aid in their development and understandings of leadership. Despite observations and evaluations of other similar programs, additional research on these initiatives becomes a necessity in order to make changes and improvements to benefit leadership programs and student development at Miami.
Chronicling the experiences of 10 students in the CHANGE LLC over a six-month period, this study examines the effects of the different components of living, learning communities. Particularly targeting students who participate in the course EDL 306: Nature of Group Leadership, this study works to construct narratives to explore the practice of leadership at Miami and how these students interact with this conceptual structure. After discussing the theoretical basis of this study, common themes and ideas expressed by participants are identified and analyzed. Finally, this paper will make recommendations to the Office of Student Affairs and other University partners in order to help improve the experiences of students in the CHANGE community and across campus. Many of these suggestions target methods for clarification, intentional programming, and ideas to help build student buy-in. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the current programs and ways in which leadership development at Miami might be enhanced.