Leadership, Ethics, and Values

The Leadership, Ethics, and Values (LEV) Program at North Central is committed to developing students into changemakers - "curious, engaged, ethical, and purposeful citizens and leaders" -by offering unique and distinctive academic programs.  As a core part of the College's Center for Social Impact, the LEV curriculum is enhanced by immersive co-curricular and experiential learning opportunities.

Students can choose an academic major in Social Entrepreneurship or Ethical Leadership, a minor in Social Innovation, Conflict Resolution, or Ethical Leadership, a concentration in Ethical Leadership, or a number of LEV courses that enhance and complement other areas of study.

The LEV program provides the academic engine that fuels the Center's five "Pathways to Social Impact" through which students can explore the diverse ways they can make a difference in the world: Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Civic Engagement and Leadership, Service and Volunteering, Advocacy and Activism, and Scholarship and Research. Each pathway features a number of related student organizations, major campus events, immersion experiences, funding and mentoring opportunities, and possible internship and career paths. 

On each step of their journey, students have the opportunity to develop their minds, discover their strengths, practice their skills, and apply their knowledge in ways that positively impact not only the campus community but the global community as well.

The Leadership, Ethics and Values curriculum at North Central was recognized by Ashoka U as one of only 6 institutions around the world as a semi-finalist for the  #MillionsofChangemakers award, given to innovative initiatives that serve as a model for higher education.  Ashoka U is the higher education initiative of Ashoka – the world’s largest community of social entrepreneurs and changemakers.  North Central College is one of less than 50 colleges and universities globally to receive the designation of a "Changemaker Campus" by Ashoka U. 

We offer two majors: Ethical Leadership, B.A. and Social Entrepreneurship, B.A., and three minors: Conflict Resolution, Ethical Leadership, and Social Innovation. Finally, we offer one Leadership concentration which provides students with a meaningful package of leadership content to supplement their existing coursework.

Ethical Leadership, B.A.

The field of leadership studies represents a distinct academic discipline that readily connects to other fields of inquiry. The current political, social and corporate climates speak to a need for ethical leaders. The Ethical Leadership Major provides a comprehensive overview and systematic approach to the study of leadership and its ethical obligations and implications. Students pair the Ethical Leadership Major with their choice from a selection of preset minors to integrate and apply the theory of leadership to another area of academic interest.

For additional information and courses in this program, see .

Required Courses

Electives

One of the following:

Additional Requirements

Complete a minor in one of the following partner departments or programs:

  • Interdisciplinary Programs: Chicago Area Studies; History of Ideas
  • College of Arts & Sciences: History; Religious Studies; Philosophy; Political Science; Environmental Studies
  • School of Entrepreneurship & Business: Management

Students must demonstrate elementary competence in a foreign language. For more information, see the B.A. Degree Requirements within the Academic Regulations section of this catalog.

Social Entrepreneurship, B.A.

A Social Entrepreneurship major prepares students with the mindset and skillset to create innovative, scalable and measurable solutions to complex societal challenges, focused on a triple bottom-line of social, financial and environmental returns. Students will be well-equipped to launch a for-profit, non-profit or hybrid venture of their own, or to solve social challenges through the process of innovation within an existing organization.

For additional information and courses in this program, see .

One of the following:

One of the following:

One of the following:

Students must demonstrate elementary competence in a foreign language. For more information, see the B.A. Degree Requirements within the Academic Regulations section of this catalog.

Conflict Resolution Minor

This minor offers students applied interdisciplinary and pre-professional preparation to engage in a variety of conflict resolution models including negotiation, mediation and facilitation. Additionally, it complements academic majors in a variety of disciplines in which students may seek graduate education, including law, political science, psychology and human resources.

For additional information and courses in this program, see .

A minimum of 20 credit hours, including:

Ethical Leadership Minor

Current political, social and corporate climates portend the need for ethical leaders. Students pursuing a minor in Ethical Leadership engage with leadership theory and its ethical foundations while continually examining the relevance, application and impact of leadership in today's society.

For additional information and courses in this program, see .

A minimum of 20 credit hours, including:

Required Courses

One of the following:

Elective(s)

Four credit hours from the following:

Social Innovation Minor

Social Innovation is the process of developing creative solutions to complex social or environmental challenges which are more effective, efficient, sustainable or just than current solutions. Using the design thinking methodology, a social innovation minor will equip students in any field of study with the skillset to create meaningful, lasting social impact.

For additional information and courses in this program, see .

A minimum of 20 credit hours, including:

One of the following:

Leadership Concentration

An Ethical Leadership concentration provides students with a meaningful package of leadership content to supplement their existing coursework. This concentration introduces students to leadership theory and its ethical foundations while continually examining the relevance, application and impact of leadership in today's society. Completion of an Ethical Leadership Concentration allows students to obtain a formal transcript designation with fewer courses and requirements than a full academic minor in the context of a challenging, coherent and meaningful LEAD experience involving coursework and co-curricular efforts.

For additional information and courses in this program, see .

Requirements for the concentration come in three areas: coursework, applications and portfolio.

Required Courses

One of the Following:

One of the Following:

One of the Following:

Applied Leadership Experience

One of the following:

  • Service in an North Central College organizational leadership position (e.g., student government, residence life staff, service trip coordinator).

  • Service in an North Central College athletic leadership position (e.g., Team Captain).

  • Completion of LEAD 360 - Precepting, or service in some other approved academic leadership position

  • Completion of LEAD 494 - Capstone: Applied Leadership, a LEAD approved internship experience involving significant leadership components.

  • Completion of a College Scholars Honors Thesis (HONR 400) with significant leadership and/or ethics dimentions.

Note: Students are encouraged to propose additional leadership applications to satisfy this component of the Leadership Concentration to the Director of the Leadership, Ethics and Values Program.

Leadership Readiness Portfolio

The Leadership Readiness Porfolio (electronic or hard-copy) must include all of the following:

  • Evidence of completion of the Applied Leadership Experience.

  • Copies of no fewer than three major written assignments submitted in one of the leadership concentration required courses.

  • A concluding/capstone personal statement reflecting on completion of your college career and of the Strengths Assessment, not to exceed three pages.

  • A complete resume.

  • Completion of all requirements for either a North Central College B.S. or B.A. degree.

NOTE: The courses listed herein have been approved by the faculty as authorized by the Board of Trustees.  Prerequisites (if any) and the General Education Requirement(s) which each course fulfills (if any) are noted following each course description.

Current course offerings are available in Merlin.

LEAD 130 Design Thinking for Social Impact (4.00)
As members of a diverse and global community, we face a variety of complex social issues. Students will learn the theory and practice of human-centered design, a creative approach to problem-solving that leads students through a process to empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test their ideas. Through readings, case studies, hands-on activities, field experiences, and interaction with community leaders and residents, students will develop the mindset and toolkit needed to create innovative solutions for change, regardless of the discipline or field of study they pursue. Students will identify local social or environmental challenges and work collaboratively to address them through the design thinking process.
Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Community Engaged Learning.
iCon(s): Innovating the World.

LEAD 130 Leadership for Changemaking (4.00)
An introduction to the scholarship of leadership theory and practice is integral to the preparation of students to be leaders and changemakers in a global community. This course walks students through the development of leadership theory while continually emphasizing its relevance and application. Students will engage with a variety of approaches as they examine case studies, research examples for theoretical application, and reflect on their own leadership style and development.
Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Ethical Dimensions.
iCon(s): Engaging Civic Life.

LEAD 180 Financial Intelligence for Social Entrepreneurs (4.00)
Social enterprises have unique financial management and reporting needs. To operate such businesses successfully, social entrepreneurs require clear and complete financial information, including budgeting and cash flow forecasting, to inform their decision-making and to support their efforts to produce investment in the business. This course will explore the accounting and financial management of social enterprises, focusing on basic accounting practices and principles in a hands-on, skills-oriented, case-study driven fashion.

LEAD 230 Social Innovation (4.00)
Students learn to utilize design thinking and systems thinking methodology in approaching social and environmental problems. Students will develop an innovative skillset and apply it directly to complex issues of their choosing, while building their efficacy as changemakers. Social innovation is derived from the practice of solution-oriented thinking, that seeks to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.
Prerequisite(s): LEAD 100.
Cardinal Directions Designation(s): U.S. Power Structures.
iCon(s): Innovating the World.

LEAD 230 Conflict Resolution (4.00)
An inquiry into the theories and skills relating to the resolution of conflict in the community and the workplace. A variety of approaches are used to understand and analyze issues and develop skills including lecture/discussion, negotiation exercises, and simulated mediations. The course will focus on developing the ability to practice as a mediator.
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing.

LEAD 250 Designing Your Life (2.00)
A reflective and practical approach to finding purpose and meaning in life and career. Approaching the future with the mindset and tools of a designer, students discover their strengths and interests, envision multiple desired scenarios, and test out possible vocational pathways. Students learn and practice principles of holistic wellness to support and sustain life as a “curious, engaged, ethical and purposeful citizen and leader.” 

LEAD 260 Leadership for Inner Transformation (2.00)
Inner transformation is a process toward becoming an undivided and authentic self that might often be overlooked in our complex and chaotic society today, but, essential for leadership. This course provides an opportunity for students to engage in a virtue-ethics approach to explore the inner work of self and self in relation to others from both the Western and Eastern perspectives. Dialogue is one approach to developing interpersonal awareness and willingness to cultivate the self. As part of their learning experience, students will engage in intrapersonal, self-reflective practices and cultivate dialogic practices as they find new ways to appreciate self and others across differences.

LEAD 300 Social Entrepreneurship (4.00)
An immersion into the rapidly-growing field of social entrepreneurship, teaching students how to address complex social or environmental challenges through the creation of market-based solutions that are innovative, measurable, sustainable and scalable. Through readings, interactive workshops, guest speakers, and field experiences, students will identify systemic social challenges and corresponding opportunities, pinpoint root causes, ideate and test possible solutions, explore funding sources, consider legal structures, and prepare an impact measurement plan. The course will culminate in a written social venture plan and pitch that communicates a viable solution to a social challenge.
Prerequisite(s): One of the following: LEAD 100, LEAD 180 or Junior standing.
Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Community Engaged Learning.
iCon(s): Challenging Inequity.

LEAD 310 Leadership and Place (4.00)
(Same as: CHAS 310.) Leadership and Place traces the influence of home towns and home places on contemporary and historical leadership paradigms while considering such ethical questions as: What role does place play in forming a responsible and responsive leader? How does one lead responsibly and well far from home? How and where do rural, urban, and suburban ethical standards and value judgments converge and diverge? Where have the leaders of the past come from and where are they likely to be found in the future? Playing close attention to small communities and neighborhoods as key loci in the production of twentieth-century civic leaders and as ethical centers in a Jeffersonian republic, course texts, lectures, and discussions feature real-life case studies designed to engage students in debates weighing ethical and moral positions viewed through the lens of place. Leadership and Place uniquely encourages students in the study of personal (inside-out) as well as cultural (outside-in) place-based, ethical perspectives while inviting them to consider the foundational role home communities play in ethical leadership on the local, regional, and national level.
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing.
iCon(s): Experiencing Place.

LEAD 320 Ethical Leadership (4.00)
What connects all leaders is that they attempt to guide or inspire the conduct of others (their employees, colleagues, fellow citizens, and so on). Our study of ethical leadership will investigate both what it means to be an ethical leader at a personal level (i.e., a leader, with the right values and character, who acts properly) and collective level (i.e., a leader who inspires ethical action in others). We will analyze examples of leadership at the top (e.g., business CEOs) and from the bottom (e.g., activists and whistleblowers). The course is organized in four sections, each centered on its own theme: (1) developing a toolkit for ethical decision making; (2) understanding the sources of moral failures; (3) developing ethical leaders; and (4) investigating leadership in the face of great moral conflict. Students will end the course by developing group projects that apply course material to a specific case of successful (or failed) leadership.
Prerequisite(s): LEAD 220.

LEAD 330 Leaders Without Borders (4.00)
World leaders must navigate an array of domestic and international issues on a daily basis. Their leadership qualities and styles often reflect cultural and social norms as well as their nation’s political system. The underlying theme of this course is that the skills and behaviors that are perceived as effective leadership characteristics in one culture are not necessarily those that will be effective in a different culture. Students will explore the ways in which specific characteristics are valued differently by different cultures. Students will also acquire frameworks for assessing how to approach a work assignment in a culture that is not their own. Finally, students will consider the effect of globalization on leadership, and define the characteristics necessary to successfully lead in a highly diverse and complex world that challenges them to understand and respond to nationalism, terrorism, trade, human rights, environmental challenges, power and justice, and explore regional leadership issues.
Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Global Understanding.
iCon(s): Thinking Globally.

LEAD 350 Ethnic & Religious Conflict Resolution (4.00)
Students discover the origins of and build a conceptual framework for understanding ethnic and religious conflict. The approach will be interdisciplinary and examine the central causes, consequences, and ultimately solutions for resolving ethnic and religious conflict. We will use numerous case studies to explore the key conceptual and theoretical areas and questions within the field. The reading is plentiful, but thought provoking, and should enable you to explore the dynamics of global conflict with greater rigor and precision. Come prepared for a stimulating academic experience.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing.
Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Global Understanding.
iCon(s): Thinking Globally.

LEAD 360 Precepting (2.00)
Precepting is a form of leadership in the classroom. A preceptor is not a simply a teaching assistant, a peer mentor or a tutor. A preceptor is an apprentice who works alongside a professor, participating in the management and delivery of a course he or she has already taken. In this seminar, students engage with the scholarship of teaching and learning, leadership theory, and strengths-based development while reflecting on their unique precepting experience. Precepting provides high-impact, experiential learning in the world of higher education.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing and instructor consent.
Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Community Engaged Learning.

LEAD 370 Marketing for Social Impact (4.00)
Effective marketing can be alever for the creation of both economic and social value. Startups and existing organizations, whether focused on marketing goods, services, ideas or values, need a complete strategy for maximizing social impact. Social entrepreneurs face a unique challenge in not just identifying a market opportunity, but tackling a neglected market gap. In addition to understanding product, place, price, and promotion in the creation of a marketing plan, students will learn the theory and practice of branding and identity, storytelling and communication, and the use of available technological tools that contribute to positive social impact.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing.

LEAD 380 Finance & Law for Social Impact Business (4.00)
Two early, but significant, challenges facing social entrepreneurs are financing the enterprise and determining what type of business entity the enterprise will be. This course explores a range of financing models and approaches, all of which present the social entrepreneur with the opportunity to both start and scale up a successful social enterprise. The course also considers the range of business entity options, both traditional and social enterprise specific, available to the social entrepreneur. Students will develop finance plans and business formation documents as major projects in the course.
Prerequisite(s): LEAD 180 and LEAD 300.

LEAD 390 Seminar on Leadership Theory (4.00)
The goal of the seminar is to gain familiarity with the considerations involved in framing a comprehensive theory of leadership with special emphasis upon the connections between leadership, values, and ethics. In independent projects students relate major theories about leadership to the study of specific leader/constituent relationships.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing.
Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Writing Intensive.

LEAD 394 Conflict Resolution Practicum (4.00)
An advanced, skills-oriented course focusing on the resolution of actual, rather than simulated conflicts. The course continues the conflict resolution theory and skill development commenced in LEAD 230 by applying both to conflicts on the college campus and, eventually, in community courts and businesses. The course continues the LEAD 230 focus on developing the ability to practice as a mediator.
Prerequisite(s): LEAD 230.

LEAD 400 Social Impact Measurement (4.00)
Address the growing necessity of social impact measurement in a broad spectrum of industries, including non-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, and social enterprises. Social impact may be defined as any non-financial benefit that a venture will create for the good of society, and can include issues like human rights, poverty, the environment, health & wellness, education and more. Traditional businesses track their performance based on specific economic and accounting metrics. This course engages students in the practice of social impact measurement from identifying an organization’s mission and vision, to mapping data collection and identifying long-term impact. Students identify, secure, and partner with non-profits, for profit social enterprises, or their own entity to complete a course-long, engaged learning project.
Prerequisite(s): LEAD 300.
Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Community Engaged Learning.

LEAD 494 Capstone: Applied Leadership (4.00)
A structured seminar reflection upon the experience of leadership gained in an approved experiential setting. Students spend approximately 10 to 12 hours per week in their experiential setting. One two-hour class meeting per week.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing.

LEAD 497 Internship (0.00-12.00)
Instructor consent required.

LEAD 499 Independent Study (1.00-12.00)
Instructor consent required.

With endless academic and co-curricular opportunities, LEV offers 1-4 year personalized plans that you can take advantage of starting today!

  • The Changemaker Grant is for any North Central student with an idea to create positive social impact. Students can receive between $500 and $5000 to initiate a project on campus or in the local community, to launch a non-profit or for-profit social venture. All ideas are welcome!
  • Mironda K. Heston Scholarship is awarded annually to one or more North Central College students who are interested in working in a human rights and service capacity at home or abroad.
  • Blue Key Honor Society recognizes upperclass students who demonstrate exemplary leadership academic distinction, community service and citizenship.

  • The LEV Fellows Scholarship is a highly attractive option for students who demonstrate outstanding leadership potential and a keen interest in maximizing their leadership skills to improve the North Central College community in return for year-to-year financial aid incentives. Students will receive a $1,000 scholarship the first year, a $1,500 scholarship the second year and a $2,000 scholarship the third year. Apply through the North Central College Academic Works website. Applications go live on February 1st, 2019.