Leading the way
Virginia Tech is committed to educating the leaders of the future — and to creating the opportunities that move leadership into action.
Morgan Ralph enrolled at Virginia Tech in fall 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The university, like the rest of the world, was slowly returning to more in-person options for work and study, but social and community service opportunities remained limited.
The circumstances didn’t deter Ralph, a natural extrovert.
In the spring of 2021, Ralph joined a service sorority. And when a sorority sister learned of Ralph’s love of the outdoors, she suggested that Ralph join the Leadership Institute within the College of Natural Resources and Environment.
Having thrived in leadership positions at nearby Narrows High School in Narrows, Virginia, Ralph seized the opportunity.
“I’ve been told I’m a little bossy, which isn’t always a compliment,” Ralph said with a laugh. “But I love getting involved with leadership roles, and this was a way for me to learn how to be more diplomatic in leading a meeting and leading others. The Leadership Institute has given me that confidence to be like, ‘OK, I can lead people my age. I can lead people older than me. I can handle conflict resolution.’ It gave me a tool kit of skills to deal with different personalities.”
A shifting world that becomes more unpredictable with each passing day requires leaders who are flexible and willing to adapt to change. It requires thinking broadly and stretching beyond traditional norms. It requires innovation, an embracing of diverse people and ideas, and an ability to communicate with sensitivity, empathy, and open-mindedness. It requires a leadership style that inspires rather than one that rules.
Nearly all leadership skills can be learned. But they need to be practiced to ensure future successes.
Virginia Tech creates the opportunities that move leadership from attribute to action.
Just what is leadership?
In most cases, people recognize good leadership when they see it. They feel strongly about whom they think are good leaders. Yet they struggle to provide an actual definition.
Even dictionaries fall short – offering insufficient entries such as “the action of leading a group of people” or “the state or position of being a leader.”
Tyler Walters, dean of University Libraries at Virginia Tech, has a Ph.D. in managerial leadership in the information professions and has studied leadership for years. He said people struggle to define leadership because it is not a concrete concept.
“I've come to think of leadership as more of an art than as a science,” he said. “If it's a science, it's really the science of people.”
Walters offered a simple suggestion, one to which many probably can relate. Leadership means getting people to unite to address a common goal or to move an organization in a specific direction.
“I don't like to think of leadership as: The leader is out front, and everybody else is just listening,” he said. “It's more about being in touch with people, doing things and saying things that resonate with people, and helping them to understand things like vision and strategy and where it is you're trying to go.”
Today, academics and researchers have categorized leadership according to specific applications — servant leadership, participatory leadership, authoritative leadership — to name just a few. According to Walters, the best leaders, regardless of the type of leadership, exhibit similar traits.
Walters said being a great leader starts with being empathetic and seeing things from the followers’ perspectives. Followers want to know that leaders care about them — and that caring needs to be genuine.
“You can't really fake it,” Walters said. “People figure that out quickly and easily, so that goes along with the principle of authentic leadership, which is about being who you are as a leader, tapping into your own story, your own background, and letting people know that background. I think those things go together. I think it's important for people to be able to not only see you as leader, but also see you as person.”
The common characteristics of leaders include integrity, accountability, honesty, and intelligence and many other shared attributes.
But definitions and traits aside, when it comes to leadership, the most pressing question may be: Can leadership, at its core, be taught?
Virginia Tech believes it can.
Saluting a different future
Andre Asarian started thinking about joining the military while in high school. The Brooklyn, New York, native hoped to attend one of the prestigious military academies, but medical reasons forced him to choose a different direction.
In his search for the right college, Asarian discovered the Citizen-Leader Track within the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. This four-year program is specifically for cadets who, for any number of reasons, are unable to or choose not to graduate as a commissioned officer and serve a post-graduate stint in the military, but still seek the traditional corps training and opportunities for leader development.
Recognizing the similarities in this program — one of just a few of its kind nationally — and the academies, Asarian decided to enroll.
“I'm at a research institution and a huge public university, where I get all the same opportunities I can get from the Naval Academy or West Point and places like that,” he said. “I'm given that same leadership training in a military setting so that I can improve as a leader, become a more confident individual, and build on things I've learned through high school from being involved in leadership.”
Therein lies the distinction of the Virginia Tech program. The Citizen-Leader Track teaches leadership skills within a military model, but those skills transfer to any career, according to Ken Mallory ’06, director of the program.
“Instead of focusing on military tactics and skills and the knowledge necessary for success in a uniformed capacity, we're focusing on what is going to help you to be successful in civilian employment, in government employment, or one of the national organizations in public service, in corporate service, or in volunteerism,” Mallory said.
Asarian, now a senior, is a company commander within the program of 250 cadets in the Citizen-Leader Track. He will graduate with degrees in public health from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and political science from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.
Asarian intends to work in the medical field, perhaps as a physician or a community health director. He recently received his paramedic certification — something he probably would have lacked time to pursue as a traditional ROTC cadet because, while the leadership development programs within the corps are similar, commissioning cadets do have differing obligations.
Asarian serves on the corps medic staff and commanded the 12-cadet team as it provided support during the fall 2023 New Cadet Week prior to the start of the semester. He also works part time and volunteers as a paramedic in the New River Valley and Roanoke regions and at home during breaks. He plans to apply to the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine for graduate school and eventually could serve in the military as a medical physician if he so chooses.
Or he could pursue different paths. The Citizen-Leader Track provides the cadet with any number of post-graduate options.
“That's one of the nice things about our program,” Mallory said. “Someone may decide, ‘Hey, the Army’s not for me,’ but decide that aspects of it are appealing. We have that built-in flexibility to be able to absorb those ebbs and flows while still providing valuable experiences, even if it's nothing more than helping a cadet build a resumé or learn how to pitch themselves at a career fair for professional experiences later on.”
The importance of “doing”
Arguably, no group on campus emphasizes leadership more than the Corps of Cadets. In fact, the corps recently opened the Corps Leadership and Military Science Building — investing more than $70 million into a building that houses offices for the corps and ROTC staffs, the Rice Center for Leader Development, and classrooms for the corps, the Citizen-Leader Track program, and ROTC programs. It also houses the Integrated Security, Education, and Research Center.
There is a reason for this hefty investment, according to Maj. Gen. Randal Fullhart, commandant of the corps.
“They [the cadets] know that we and the university are holding them to higher standards because of what we’re going to be asking them to do when they graduate,” Fullhart said. “They will be responsible, in many cases, for other people’s sons and daughters, and you don’t want them to take that responsibility lightly. You want them to take the time during these four years to prepare to be the kind of leaders that we’re confident in.”
All corps leadership courses are run through the Maj Gen W. Thomas Rice Center for Leader Development. First-year and sophomore cadets are required to enroll in courses about the fundamentals of leadership and then work toward small unit leadership. Juniors and seniors have the option of taking junior organizational level leadership and senior executive level leadership classes. The commandant’s staff teaches these courses, which are accredited through the Pamplin College of Business’ Department of Management.
The corps’ leader development activities are not static. Global dynamics and military tactics change constantly, and that requires training cadets to be adaptable to evolving situations, according to Capt. Jamie McGrath, ’90, director of the Rice Center.
“I think that's one of the things about this program that I am very pleased about is that we are a dynamic and learning organization,” McGrath said. “We are not set in the past – in doing things the way we've always done them. We are constantly looking to improve the quality of the experience for our cadets. We're constantly looking to ensure that our cadets are prepared to step into today's leadership environment, so what we teach has evolved and how we present it has evolved.”
The corps’ strategy, though, and that of many colleges within the university revolves around more than just teaching. Leadership involves “doing.”
To better explain, cadets learn various leadership strategies and concepts in the classroom. Then, the corps’ staff places them in roles where they need to use those strategies and concepts to be effective leaders.
These roles can be anything from serving as regimental and battalion commanders, working in day-to-day staff operational roles, overseeing logistics, being a member of the Highty-Tighties, or helping with communications, such as writing for corps publications or managing the corps social media.
Another way that cadets practice leadership is through external partnerships. For example, Boeing provides internships for cadets that may lead to jobs post-graduation, and the Department of Defense has partnered with the corps on a pilot program that offers select cadets internships that will later translate to work for the department as civilians.
“I think the experience piece is a critical element of any leadership development program,” McGrath said. “It does not always have to be a military model. That is the model that we happen to use here in the Corps of Cadets, but I do think that experience is critical for leaders.
“There are certainly other ways to experience leadership growth and development. Ours is not the only method by which you can do that. I work very closely with several of the other leader development programs here at Virginia Tech, and all of them include an experiential piece.”
Communication is key
When he joined the College of Natural Resources and Environment’s Leadership Institute during his first year at Virginia Tech, Truman Collins anticipated it would help him develop leadership skills and improve his ability to communicate with other professionals in the field.
The Roanoke, Virginia, native, who is graduating in May with a degree in wildlife conservation, never envisioned putting those lessons to use in the jungles of Belize.
Yet, he did exactly that while searching for jaguars as part of Marcella Kelly’s camera-trapping research project — a project that has received worldwide recognition for the longtime Virginia Tech professor. Collins dealt with flat tires, broken GPS devices, and varying personalities of those in his groups.
“There are so many different things that can happen when you're in the field,” Collins said. “There are so many different styles of people and what people want to do, and you have to blend that all together. You don’t want to overcoach one group and under coach another. You want to give people the most for things to be successful, but also take a step back and let them be successful.
“I think the Leadership Institute really has helped me work with different types of people in different situations.”
That’s exactly what Brian Bond wants to hear. Bond, associate dean of Extension, outreach and engagement and professor of sustainable biomaterials, serves as the director of the institute, which consists of approximately a dozen students. To participate in the institute students must be juniors or seniors and successfully complete an application process. Other criteria include a GPA of 3.8, three references, and past participation in activities that demonstrate leadership.
Through the institute, Bond and other faculty introduce leadership theories and encourage personal development. Several instruments, such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument and the Emotional Intelligence Assessment are part of the curriculum. Students participate in a leadership project, and travel to Charlottesville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C., to meet with leaders in state and federal government agencies, private industries, and nongovernment organizations.
The program helps students develop their own leadership styles so they can effectively communicate and address issues related to conservation — or in simpler terms, put leadership into action.
“To influence people and policy and get them to understand the science and make the right decisions, you've got to interact with people, and you’ve got to have skills to be able to communicate that information and lead people in the right direction,” Bond said. “We want our students to be able to engage in leadership positions right out of the gate and to advance and be able to meet the needs of society with their technical skills, but also be able to interact with groups and lead those groups moving forward.”
Ralph, the Narrows, Virginia, native, feels that the Leadership Institute prepared her to do exactly that. She has used what she learned from the institute in her position as assistant manager at a local restaurant, and even in everyday interactions, she puts what she calls her “tool kit” to use.
Ralph will graduate in May with degrees in conservation and society from the College of Natural Resources and Environment and in environmental policy and planning from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. She plans to seek a master’s degree in public administration from Virginia Tech before eventually pursuing a career as an environmental lobbyist or as a floodplain manager.
“I don't think I would be interested in the roles I would like to do after graduate school had I not been in the Leadership Institute,” she said. “I think having that class and gaining that confidence and gaining the ability to work well with people has been so important to my development, both personally and professionally.”
Practice makes perfect
When Ruthie Brown switched majors from biology to management science, consulting, and analytics within the Pamplin College of Business, she discovered that she could graduate within three years. And then she realized she needed to build her resumé quickly.
So the Eggleston, Virginia, native joined the Pamplin Leadership Development Team, serving a year on the hospitality committee. She then served as co-president along with Mona Tull this past calendar year.
“At first, I wasn’t really thinking about doing that,” Brown said. “I was exploring some other clubs that I was also in and some leadership positions within those. I really wanted to have a diverse portfolio. But I just really liked what Pamplin was doing, and I really thought that I would be good in the role. I have a lot of ideas and I’m positive. I love to encourage and lift members up.
“I got to be close with the team, which was a perk, and I felt like our team did a great job of leaning into our roles. I hope that’s from me and Mona’s leadership. It was just a great opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”
The Leadership Development Team is positioned within the Business Leadership Center in the college. More than two dozen students are selected to participate each year following an application process that factors in GPA and commitment to service time, among other criteria.
The team attends professional workshops and plans an annual Student Leadership Conference that brings in corporate industry partners to share about topics such as leadership and organizational development. The team also plans a career fair, and partners with other organizations on campus to support leadership development.
Brown, who will be working as a project manager for Cisco Systems in Raleigh, North Carolina, after she graduates in May, said she took a lot of pride in revamping the culture of the team, inspiring members to become involved in projects and actively participating in meetings. But she also admitted her year as president wasn’t easy.
“It was definitely challenging,” Brown said. “I think any leadership position is challenging in its own ways. … But it was a good experience. Everyone was great, and we did some awesome things.”
Brown’s success as a leader, and the success of other leaders on the team, reinforced the team’s model, which is simple — learn concepts about leadership and then practice them, according to Ron Poff, associate professor of practice and interim director of the team.
“One of the things that we talk about is that we want to have a safe place to fail. I don't know any leader in this world that's never failed,” Poff said. “We want to have that safe space so they are able to experiment, they're able to practice, and they're able to understand what failure potentially looks like, so that they can learn from that and make the appropriate changes.”
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences offers a similar opportunity through its interdisciplinary minor leadership and social change. Students working toward the minor are required to participate in a capstone course that invites them to reflect on their college experiences and what they learned, particularly experiences with student organizations. Students then organize a semester-long podcast series to share as part of an interview for graduate school or private employment.
The minor isn’t limited to those pursuing degrees within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It is open to students working toward degrees in other colleges, also.
That brings added value to the minor, according to Eric Kaufman, professor and associate department head in the college’s Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education.
“It’s not intended to be only for students in agriculture, and because of that, we get some rich discussions in the classes,” Kaufman said. “There are certain things we’re bringing in, some key concepts on leadership, that are important.
“We’re often taking students who have good foundations or interests and instincts about how to interact with groups and how to inspire a shared vision and hope toward that, but then what we’re doing is trying to help them get to the next level. We want them to take some of those initial pieces and get more systematic in the way that they prepare other leaders and work with a wider variety of groups in a different context.”
Making meaningful connections
Delia Alcorn’s participation in the Undergraduate Student Senate, the student governing body at Virginia Tech, seems fitting. After all, many of her family members worked in public service, including her father, Walter, who serves on the Fairfax County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors.
But when Alcorn contemplated pursuing a project important to her — increasing accessibility to medical and forensic post-sexual assault care at Virginia Tech by lobbying the university administration to train or hire a dedicated sexual assault nurse examiner — she needed confirmation.
Ainsley Cragin and Tristan Southerland, also students in the Undergraduate Student Senate, provided both the motivation and the support.
“Ainsley and Tristan really encouraged me to pursue this project,” Alcorn said. “They both told me that this was something that was needed and that people would care. That was the biggest thing. I was like, ‘Do people even care? Would people even listen to me?’ With Ainsley and with Tristan, I felt like it was possible, and it was confirmed that I did need to do this.”
Through her role on the Undergraduate Student Senate, Alcorn, a sophomore, has met with various stakeholders on campus and even certain state government delegates to discuss the topic. A campus-based sexual assault nurse examiner — a trained nurse who provides specific care following sexual assault — potentially could eliminate the need to send individuals who have experienced sexual violence to Carilion New River Valley Medical Center in Radford, Virginia, for examinations. Accessibility, care, and evidence recovery all would be improved.
Therein lies the role of the Undergraduate Student Senate, a group of more than 100 students who represent the 30,000-plus undergraduates at Virginia Tech. The senate works with university administrators to address challenges faced by students. They also determine how $620,000 in student fees are allocated, reviewing requests and distributing funds to various student organizations. In addition, a select group participates in advocacy days in Richmond and Washington, D.C., advocating to state and federal legislators on institutional priorities.
Members of the senate spend a lot of time with Kat Nelson, deputy director of the senate and advisor. Nelson documents duties and projects, connects the members with university partners, and helps them understand the university’s governance structure. She also supports the students in fulfilling their duties and executing projects.
“They have a big job to do, all of them do,” Nelson said. “I really appreciate their passion, so I want to make sure that we set them up to succeed. Since coming to Tech, I’m blown away by how cool these students are and how smart they are and how they would think of things that I wouldn’t think of. If we can equip them better, then I’m always excited to do that.”
That mentorship, both from university administrators and older students, is a critical element to the senate’s success. It empowers students to take on projects and policies that they otherwise may not have pursued.
In other words, it gives them confidence to be leaders — something they eventually will need during competitive job searches.
“Being in the senate has given me a lot of self-confidence,” Alcorn admitted. “I feel that I would be a much different person without the senate and without this project. I've learned how to be more of a professional.”
Mentorship is also important in the College of Engineering. In the early 1990s, college administrators launched the Center for Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED) to encourage and support engineering students.
During the past year, CEED launched a pilot program to connect older women engineering students as mentors to younger women students. This mentoring program is one of several within the college.
Michelle Morris, who graduated with a degree in biomedical engineering in May 2023 and currently is pursuing a master’s degree, oversaw several mentors who worked with approximately 25 mentees this past year. She helped the group plan meetings to discuss common issues faced by women in engineering and supported them in organizing a Women in Biomedical Engineering career panel to enable younger students to network with Virginia Tech alumnae in biomedical engineering careers.
“One thing that we heard at the end of our exit surveys was that most of the mentees really enjoyed being able to talk to someone who's a little older in the department,” Morris said. “I think the thing that made it successful was there was never a set agenda. The mentees could talk about what they needed at that time, as opposed to something being more structured. I think they really enjoyed just being able to make a connection and discuss whatever needs they had that moment of the semester.”
Insights gleaned through the first year of the program apprised college administrators of what women students need and desire and will inform changes to meet those needs going forward.
The future of leadership
Virginia Tech officials believe in molding good leaders. So much so that the university offers six minors related to leadership spread among different colleges on campus.
Nearly all the university’s leadership classes, centers, and programs are designed to prepare students for the workplace. And nearly all are led by well-respected professors, researchers, and staff members with expertise arguably unequaled in their respective fields.
That expertise provides the foundation from which the university’s reputation for educating leaders has emerged. Such credibility is important.
“It really helps if an instructor has practical, real-world experience in the subject they teach,” Fullhart said. “That’s why all the people whom we have teaching in our courses, and serving as mentors, have decades of front-line experience and the credibility that comes with that.”
Employers around the globe indicate an increasing need for employees who not only have the skills to work-related tasks, but also have the capacity to excel in the yet-to-be imagined labor market of the future. As the work environment continues to evolve, employers seek candidates who demonstrate creativity, problem-solving and other traits synonymous with leadership. But too often their searches are unsuccessful.
Poff, with an extensive background in business, sees that void in society, and believes Virginia Tech graduates are prepared to fill it.
“Leadership isn't easy,” said Poff. “It takes someone special. It takes initiative, and it takes a chance to step back, listen to others, and you don't always win at what you are wanting to do. I would say, too, that working with people right now is not easy.
“Leadership, outside of our university and the work we do, I’m not always sure it exists. But I think that’s where we, as Hokies, can go out and change that.”
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