Exploring Leadership Programs In Academia

This is a qualitative and quantitative study originally written in 2019 as part of Melendez’s Master of Science in Education thesis at Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY). Now revised as a book that examines the concepts of student success, equity, and inclusion in higher education and proposes ideas for what our institutions need to do in order to better prepare students for the daily complexities they face. This book looks at the role of leadership programs, and specifically at one program within the City University of New York (CUNY), The Futures Initiative Undergraduate Leadership Program, with the goal of assessing how and what such a program can contribute to the goals of student success and inclusion. With a counseling framework, I discuss how these programs and those like them can benefit from recognizing and accommodating for the obstacles their students face on a daily basis and making an effort to incorporate holistic pedagogical practices into teaching and learning practices.