About

Since the spring of 2014, HLC has successfully developed and launched this leadership initiative designed specifically to meet the various needs of Warrington Students.

The Heavener Leadership Challenge has a few core philosophies that we aim to instill within each of our participants. They include:

Our Vision

The Heavener Leadership Challenge creates a personal experience by developing each participant’s individual leadership style. In this program no student is an island, but rather part of a community. We challenge our participants to identify, interpret, articulate, and capitalize upon the practices displayed by themselves and others. Each student has their own unique experience that continues beyond the HLC program.

Our Mission

The Heavener Leadership Challenge is a program within the Warrington College of Business that empowers students who are driven to develop their leadership skills. We realize that leadership is a teachable and learnable skill, and our goal is to assist each student in transforming themselves into exemplary leaders.

Our Intentions

Heavener Leadership Challenge seeks to be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization. We are committed to ensuring that individuals from all backgrounds have the opportunity to become leaders. Each student is apart of a community where each person brings their differences and individuality to the table. We create a collaborative and open environment so students can comfortably bring their full identities and values to any situation.

Our Foundation

The Heavener Leadership Challenge is built upon the foundation that Leadership is Everyone’s Business. Leadership can be taught and learned by everyone. Additionally, our curriculum is guided by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s The Student Leadership Challenge and The 5 Practices of Exemplary Leadership:

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Our History

Prior to the creation of the Heavener Leadership Challenge (HLC) in the Fall of 2013, the Office of Career & Leadership Programs (CLP) offered a student development program titled “Lead. Encourage. Achieve. Promote.” (LEAP). It is from LEAP’s origins that the Heavener Leadership Challenge was born. While LEAP was a leadership program that focused on teaching leadership principles in a classroom format for freshman, sophomore and transfer students, its modular based approach lacked the theoretical grounding and support that can be found in The Student Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner (2008). After researching The Student Leadership Challenge, the CLP Office decided to discontinue the LEAP program and focus on developing a new leadership initiative that would target sophomore, junior, and transfer students within the Warrington College of Business Administration.

During the summer of 2013, the CLP staff researched The Student Leadership Challenge and Associate Director, Dave Sullivan, began training to become a certified facilitator for The Student Leadership Challenge. Since the spring of 2014, the Heavener School of Business at the University of Florida has conceptualized, developed, and successfully launched this leadership initiative aimed at meeting the needs of our current and future students through a unique program designed specifically to meet the various learning styles of all students. The Heavener Leadership Challenge (HLC) was developed to meet the following learning objectives:

Through participation in The Heavener Leadership Challenge, participants will…