​Minor in Professional Leadership

  • Minor in Professional Leadership

  • Professional Leadership Minor Gives You an Edge in the Job Market

    Blend this minor into your studies to strengthen your competitive edge in the job market. You can explore group dynamics, gain new organizational tools, and learn about current trends for creating an environment where staff feel empowered and motivated.

    With the minor listed on your transcripts, employers will know you are serious about being an effective leader—and have studied how it’s done. The Professional Leadership Minor makes you stand out as someone who is ready to move ahead.

    Build Your Leadership Toolkit with the Latest Management Tools

    In the Professional Leadership Minor, you’ll build your identity as a leader, transforming your management toolkit with the top leadership theories and models.

    You’ll learn how to establish highly effective teams by studying human behavior, group dynamics, and motivation. You’ll also explore situational leadership strategies, social responsibility, commercial sustainability, and corporate ethics.

    Show employers your leadership skills in action with a hands-on experience through the program’s Experiential Applications in Leadership course.

    Some Classes Required for Your Degree Count Toward the Minor

    The minor was designed to add minimal credits, allowing even the most credit-packed majors to take the minor. Although the minor requires 18–19 credits, most majors will only need to take about nine additional credits to earn the minor. Some of the classes taken for your liberal studies or major requirements can also count toward the Professional Leadership minor.

  • Apply Early to the Minor, Before Scheduling

    Students who are interested in the Professional Leadership Minor are advised to take SOC 161 (instead of SOC 151) and THTR 161 (instead of THTR 101) their first year at IUP. Students should declare the minor early with the appropriate form (PDF) to receive proper advising by the director of Team and Leadership Studies, Professor Justin Fair. Fair handles advising students for all minors in the program except for the military leadership minor.

    Pair the Professional Leadership Minor with a Related Minor—Some Classes Count for Both

    You can enhance your skills by pairing the Professional Leadership Minor with the Effective Teamwork and Communication Minor. Military Science students accepted into upper-level classes can, instead, pair this leadership minor with the Military Leadership Minor. Many of the same core courses are required, making double minoring easier.

  • Courses Needed for the Minor

    For more information, see the Undergraduate Catalog descriptions of each class.

    Core Courses

    • BCOM 321: Business and Interpersonal Communications—or
      COMM 261: Teamwork and Communication Skills for College and Career—or
      JRNL 301: Presentation Making
    • LDSP 361: Introduction to Leadership
    • LDSP 499: Leadership Capstone
    • SOC 161: Foundations of Sociology: Social Relations in Groups and Organizations
    • THTR 161: Introduction to Theater: Interpersonal Practices

    Required Courses

    • MGMT 461: Business Leadership Theory

    Controlled Electives

    If you want to also complete the Effective Teamwork and Communication Minor, you will take a minimum of 24 credits toward the Professional Leadership Minor by taking COMM 261 and 8–9 credits of controlled electives. All controlled electives within the respective tracks are open to students who are doing both minors.

    • LDSP 482: Experiential Applications in Leadership*
    • MGMT 311: Human Behavior in Organizations—or
      MGMT 432: Business and Society—or
      PHIL 122: Contemporary Moral Issues
    • MGMT 462: Applied Business Leadership Skills
    Courses That Also Count as Other Degree Requirements
    Course Number Course name Liberal Studies/Major Requirement
    THTR 161 Introduction to Theater: Interpersonal Practices Counts as a Fine Arts requirement
    SOC 161
    		 Foundations of Sociology: Social Relations in Groups and Organizations Counts as a Social Science requirement
    COMM 261 Teamwork and Communication Skills for College and Career Counts as an Elective in Oral Communication and Information Literacy

    *For the Experiential Applications in Leadership course, you must have your experiential application approved by the program coordinator before starting the experience and before the end of the drop/add period. You may be able to substitute other courses focusing on leader experiences with approval by the program coordinator. You must get approval for an alternate class before starting any coursework for the substituted class.

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