Research lab helps develop student leaders

By Emily Bruch

Throughout any career, leadership is an important quality. At the University of Illinois, a variety of leadership classes are offered to students, regardless of their major.

Dr. David Rosch, associate professor of Agricultural Leadership, designs and teaches courses about group leadership and adult learning. He also leads a research lab where three undergraduate students and one graduate student study how the University of Illinois can help better help develop student leaders.

One of the lab’s current projects involves collecting data on how students’ leadership capacity is developing throughout their time taking classes. The two undergraduate students, Madeline Cooke and Rachel Nieder, have a variety of roles from entering and collecting data to developing original research to present at the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. Graduate student Rob Klein is the lab manager. His roles include designing training manuals, co-authoring papers and running statistical analyses.

“I like how our research shapes the curriculum in our leadership courses,” he says. “It feels very practical.”