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Applied Leadership Project Handbook
MA in Environmental Leadership
Naropa University
Boulder, Colorado
www.naropa.edu
2013-14
22
Table of Contents
Introduction...... 1
Mission of Naropa University...... 1
Environmental Studies at Naropa University...... 1
MA in Environmental Leadership Program Goals and Learning Outcomes...... 2
Description of Applied Leadership Project...... 3
Goals & Learning Outcomes...... 4
Process and Timeline...... 4
Proposal Components...... 6
Summary/Background of Organization...... 7
Needs Assessment Summary...... 7
Proposed Initiative or Plan for Further Research...... 7
Scope of Work...... 7
Confidentiality Agreement...... 7
Participant Consent Form...... 8
Mentorship during the Applied Leadership Project………………………………...…….9
Implementing the Applied Leadership Project...... 9
Guidelines for Final Professional Report...... 9
Introduction...... 9
Summary Re-visited...... 9
Assets, Needs, and Opportunities Assessment Summary...... 9
Intitiative/Research...... 9
Recommendations...... 10
Evaluation and Project Learning...... 10
References...... 10
Appendix of Supporting Materials...... 10
Guidelines for Oral Presentation...... 10
Assessment Process...... 10
Information for Participating Organizations...... 11
Participating Organizations...... 11
Examples of Past MA in Environmental Leadership Projects...... 15
Applied Leadership Project Agreement Form...... 19
Example Confidentiality Agreement...... 20
Example Participant Agreement Form...... 21
June 2012-13
22
Introduction
The MA in Environmental Leadership at Naropa University trains students to lead organizational change and development towards effective practices for long term sustainability. In the second year of their program students carry out an Applied Leadership Project (ALP) in a business, community, non-profit or governmental organization. They observe and volunteer in the organization so that they can come to understand its goals, work and organizational systems. Based on this, and in conversation and collaboration with their organization, they develop a leadership project that directly benefits the organization. Based on approval from the organization, and in full collaboration, they then carry out their project.
The Applied Leadership Project is envisioned to be a win-win relationship. Sustainability practices bring restoration and balance to the human presence on earth as they reduce costs, save money, bring health and motivation to employees’ lives, enhance products and services offered, create community and inspire the public. The student learns applied professional skills and the people involved with the organization or community move towards a more sustainable, balanced and healthy world.
This handbook provides an overview of the Applied Leadership Project in relation to the mission of Naropa University and the curricular goals and learning outcomes of the MA in Environmental Leadership Program and gives specific details on all the Applied Leadership Project components. It is meant as a resource for current and prospective students, faculty, and both participating and prospective organizations.
Mission of Naropa University
Inspired by the rich intellectual and experiential traditions of East and West, Naropa University is North America's leading institution of contemplative education.
Naropa recognizes the inherent goodness and wisdom of each human being. It educates the whole person, cultivating academic excellence and contemplative insight in order to infuse knowledge with wisdom. The University nurtures in its students a lifelong joy in learning, a critical intellect, the sense of purpose that accompanies compassionate service to the world, and the openness and equanimity that arise from authentic insight and self-understanding. Ultimately, Naropa students explore the inner resources needed to engage courageously with a complex and challenging world, to help transform that world through skill and compassion, and to attain deeper levels of happiness and meaning in their lives.
Drawing on the vital insights of the world's wisdom traditions, the University is simultaneously Buddhist-inspired, ecumenical and nonsectarian. Naropa values ethnic and cultural differences for their essential role in education. It embraces the richness of human diversity with the aim of fostering a more just and equitable society and an expanded awareness of our common humanity.
A Naropa education—reflecting the interplay of discipline and delight—prepares its graduates both to meet the world as it is and to change it for the better.
Environmental Studies at Naropa University
Environmental Studies at Naropa University integrates the transdisciplinary study of field science and living systems, social movements and justice, sustainability, sacred ecology, and community learning. Academic study is grounded in contemplative practice and hands-on, community-based service learning.
We believe that through critical examination and understanding of diverse perspectives, engaging in meaningful relationships, and developing appropriate skills, humans can learn how to respond to the ecological crisis and return to harmonious and sustainable relationships within the living world.
MA in Environmental Leadership Program Goals and Learning Outcomes
The Environmental Leadership degree prepares the next generation of innovative thinkers and activists to lead organizational and community transformation towards an environmentally just and sustainable society.
Employing an integrated, living-systems perspective and infused with insights from ecopsychology and contemplative traditions, the program offers a balance of theory, skills, inner development and experiential application.
Naropa’s Environmental Studies Department has been training effective leaders at the master’s level since 1995. The MA in Environmental Leadership is a two-year, 39-credit residential program comprised of semester-long courses and an eight-day summer field course that involves a three-day wilderness solo. In the final year, students apply their leadership skills to a collaborative project within an organizational, business or community setting. Most classes are scheduled in the late afternoon and evening and on occasional weekends to accommodate working students.
The MA in Environmental Leadership trains students to lead creatively and compassionately from a strong inner foundation of self-knowledge. Under this new paradigm of leadership, our MA students are empowered to direct and manifest an emerging future that integrates multicultural perspectives, collaborative decision-making and cutting-edge environmental thinking on behalf of the earth and all living beings.
Goal 1: Graduates understand key theoretical perspectives in environmental justice and diversity issues and the cultural, economic, and scientific dimensions of environmental topics. Students will become effective leaders trained in the critical policies, issues and theories in the environmental field.
Learning Outcomes
· Explain living systems theory and its applications.
· Analyze and explain global and national environmental justice and diversity issues.
· Apply new science perspective and explain its cultural applications.
· Apply sustainability polices and practices.
Goal 2: Graduates demonstrate effective leadership skills for organizational and community transformation based on living systems models. Students will develop the capacity to lead transformational change toward a just and sustainable society, as well as gain experience with cutting-edge leadership models.
Learning Outcomes
· Demonstrate working with groups as living systems.
· Apply conflict intervention and resolution.
· Recognize group dynamics.
· Demonstrate understanding of organizational change management.
· Demonstrate skill in project planning.
· Apply collaborative problem solving.
· Use mindful communication and inquiry skills.
· Use council practice.
Goal 3: Graduates sustain strong human-nature relationships through contemplative and ecopsychological practices that foster students’ personal capacity for reflective and participatory leadership. Students will develop a set of contemplative and ecopsychological practices; they will use these practices to explore and deepen the human nature relationship; and they will use these practices as a foundation for reflective and participatory leadership.
Learning Outcomes
· Use mindfulness/awareness skills.
· Engage in ecopsychological perspectives and practices.
· Demonstrate capacity for deep listening.
· Demonstrate appreciation of sacred world views.
· Use ability to work with strong emotions.
· Experience deepening human/nature relationship.
· Recognize empathetic presence in working with others.
· Discover and explain personal leadership vision.
Goal 4: Graduates demonstrate integration of theoretical perspectives and leadership skills in an applied project in an organizational or community setting. Students will demonstrate competency in applying the skills, theoretical perspectives and methods taught in the program in an organizational or community setting.
Learning Outcomes
· Apply program skills and tools in an organization.
· Design, implement and assess environmental/sustainability projects.
· Use professional-level skills in report writing and presentation.
Description of Applied Leadership Project
The purpose of the Applied Leadership Project (ALP) is the integration of theoretical perspectives and leadership skills in an applied project in an organizational or community setting. The ALP is the culminating project of the MA in Environmental Leadership Program. The project is designed to give students the opportunity to apply the learning they have gained throughout the program to a specific organization, business or community. Students will apply their leadership skills to a mutually agreed upon collaborative project that can include shifting resource use patterns, encouraging community building and participation, researching new options or possibilities, and supporting the chosen organization to move towards its contribution to a just, balanced and ecologically sustainable world in a way that suits or shapes its mission.
Students are encouraged to begin searching for and volunteering in potential organizations during the summer following their first year of the MA program. During the fall of their second year, the preparation and the design of the ALP will take place within the curriculum of the Applied Leadership Project course (ENV 725). Students will establish an organization or community group to work with and complete a period of volunteering and observing (at least 40 hours)[1]. During this period, students will examine their organization’s or community group’s mission and goals, as well as its systems of work and management. Students will keep a log documenting the hours (a minimum of 40 hours is required in fall semester) spent with their constituency and write at least 8 observations. In addition within the ALP course students will complete relevant readings, keep detailed notes, examine applicable research methodologies and forms of assessment, engage in class discussions and exercises, and write short reflections. By the end of the period of volunteering and observing, students will outline the needs and possibilities of their organization or community group and develop a project proposal in collaboration with their constituency. At the end of the ENV 725 course, students must have an approved project proposal and a confidentiality agreement, both of which must be approved by the organization or community group and the ALP course faculty, as well as determined a date for their oral presentation during the spring of their final term. During the spring of their final term, as part of the Environmental Leadership Capstone Seminar course (ENV 785), students will carry out their projects, keep a log of their further required minimum of 35 volunteer hours, write a final report, and complete a presentation for the community. While taking this course students will also be enrolled in the Professional Coaching Skills (ENV 775) course in which students will apply coaching skills to their work on the Applied Leadership Projects.
Goals & Learning Outcomes
Goal: Graduates demonstrate integration of theoretical perspectives and leadership skills in an applied project in an organizational or community setting. Students will demonstrate competency in applying the skills, theoretical perspectives and methods taught in the program in an organizational or community setting.
Learning Outcomes
· Apply program skills and tools in an organization.
· Design, implement and assess environmental/sustainability projects.
· Use professional-level skills in report writing and presentation.
Process and Timeline
Spring semester of the first year of the MA Program: / Gathering to meet with Community Partners to connect with potential organizationsSummer (at end of first year of classes): / Research potential community groups or organizations to work with. Students are encouraged to begin some volunteering, record hours and take notes of observations.
Fall semester of second year of MA Program:
Late August: / Begin Applied Leadership Project Course (ENV 725)
Research and establish community groups or organizations to work with if not already begun over summer
Early September / Continue to solidify volunteering and commitment with community groups or organizations to work with
Mid-September / Finalize community group or organization and establish schedule for volunteering/observations
Continue volunteering/observing with group or organization documenting hours and any observations in log
Mid-September through October / Continue weekly volunteering/observing with group or organization documenting hours and any observations in log
Formally establish an Organizational Point Person from your organization who will work with you on the ALP
Formally establish an ENV MA Faculty member who will be your ALP mentor. This may be any faculty member in the MA program except the instructor for the ALP courses. Meet at last once with your faculty member so that they are apprised of your project.
Formally establish an ENV MA Peer Mentor. Meet at last once with your peer member so that they are apprised of your project.
Early November / Finish volunteering/observing and finish observation log
Start writing Project Proposal (in collaboration with organization)
Meet with your faculty mentor and student mentors individually to get feedback on your proposal before you hand it in for approval.
Mid-November / Complete Project Proposals
Third week of November / Submit Final Proposal approved by organization or community group. Include the proposal, the signed agreement form, the confidentiality form and other forms as needed (e.g. Participant Consent Form).
Submit Project Agreement Form approved by organization or community group
Sign up for Oral Presentation date for next spring
Within first two weeks of December / Receive official approval/and or revisions for Project Proposal by faculty in order to implement ALP (students cannot start implementing the ALP until they receive official approval by faculty)
Spring semester of second year of MA Program:
Mid-January / Begin Environmental Leadership Capstone Seminar (ENV 785)
Work on any ALP preparation
Meet or keep mentors apprised of your project
End of January / Start implementing ALP
February through March / Implement and complete ALP
Early through mid April / Write final report draft
Submit your draft to all three mentors with time for them to read and review it - ideally one to two weeks depending on their work schedules. (Be sure to let them know when you will be submitting the draft and find out how much time they will need to review it)
Meet with mentors to receive feedback on written document. (Be sure to book these meetings ahead since mentors may have busy schedules that are hard to get on at the last minute). Edit final report based on feedback.
Mid-end of April / Oral presentations
Submit final report (on time as per syllabus)
Early May / ALP assessment process
Submit final self-evaluation form
Proposal Components