Cornell faculty and staff will share strategies for student leadership development at a symposium, “A New Wave of Leaders,” Dec. 8 from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in G10 Biotech.

Subtitled “Meaningful Leadership Development Experiences for Cornell Students,” the event is open to all university professionals who are involved in or interested in student leadership. Admission is free; register online.

Sponsored by Engaged Cornell and its Leadership for the Greater Good initiative, the symposium is intended to enhance, coordinate and integrate leadership development programming across campus.

Leadership for the Greater Good was initiated to build on-campus and community engagement to develop students as leaders in every dimension of their lives – and to instill leadership competencies in democratic citizenship, integrity, organizational savvy, lifelong learning and reflective practice. It is intended to attract students from any discipline who aspire to excel in public engagement.

“This is one of the signature elements of Engaged Cornell, and we want to create a new conversation at Cornell around student leadership and create more cohesive, overarching programming that can involve students at all levels, with undergraduate students at its core,” said Rebecca Stoltzfus, provost’s fellow for public engagement.

The symposium will include panels, presentations and conversations on leadership development, approaches to mentoring, and integrating leadership experiences and community engagement. The keynote speakers are Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life; George Ferrari Jr., executive director of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County; and Erica Dawson, Ph.D. ’03, director of the Engineering Leadership Program in the College of Engineering.

Participants will learn about practices and opportunities used at Cornell to build leadership skills in undergraduate students, including transformative leadership experiences taking place beyond the classroom; successful strategies and models for use in academic courses and programs; and related opportunities and challenges across campus.

“We are looking for conversations that are honest and reflective about what’s working currently at Cornell and how to strengthen that work and expand it,” Stoltzfus said. “We want to talk about how to do this work better.”

The initiative is a developmental pathway with skills development, experiential application and mentored critical reflection, culminating in participants mentoring other students.

“The intention is to cultivate an ethos and an understanding of leadership, as not only serving students’ individual interests but thinking critically about the influence of their actions on others and on the larger landscape around them,” Stoltzfus said.

Leadership for the Greater Good will coordinate with existing leadership programs on campus – such as those within the colleges and in living-learning communities, public service efforts, athletics, Greek life and student organizations.

“We recognize that there are many good co-curricular programs, like Cornell Outdoor Education and the Meinig Scholars, working at student leadership development,” Stoltzfus said. “Our goal is a more cohesive framework that would create more alignment and synergy around those efforts for the university as a whole.”

The symposium also will introduce Mike Bishop, newly appointed director of Leadership for the Greater Good. Bishop comes to Cornell from the Public Service Center at the University of California, Berkeley, where he oversaw all co-curricular student leadership and service programs, led a local poverty initiative and spearheaded a 10-year university service project committed to post-Katrina New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.