UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- In fall 1995, the idea of offering a leadership program specifically for engineers was a radical notion. Considering that such a program was essentially unheard of across the higher education landscape, Penn State’s new Engineering Leadership Development Minor (ELDM), which launched in that year, had been approved by the narrowest of margins. One fewer vote in a Faculty Senate meeting, and it would not have flown at all.
Looking back from 2015, Penn State can now point to more than 600 graduates of the minor, who contribute to society across a wide variety of industries, practicing skills honed through the pioneering program.
“I think the ELDM experience was just as valuable for me as my undergraduate degree,” said graduate Tyler Pritz, 2012 chemical engineering graduate. “It broadened my horizons of what an engineer can really be.” Pritz, who works with colleagues from across the globe at a firm in Abu Dabai, is a perfect example of a Penn State engineering student who got the chance to prepare in a very practical way for a career in the new globalized workforce.
“I think it’s telling that an international study performed by MIT presented Penn State’s program as one of four case studies of good practice to teach engineering leadership,” noted current ELDM director Andrew “Mike” Erdman. The MIT study particularly called out Penn State’s excellence in creating the broad, global engineering skill base needed in today’s engineering leaders.
Erdman, who took over the program in 2012, sees the ELDM’s 20th anniversary as a perfect time to reflect on how it got started, what developments have shaped the program, and where it needs to go next.
Birth of an Idea: 1992-95
Though the minor wasn’t officially launched until 1995, the basic groundwork for the program began to be laid down three years previously, with the launch of the Leonhard Center for Innovation and Enhancement of Engineering Education.
“The stated goal of the center was to identify the needs of the students and of the marketplace,” said Jack Matson, who was recruited from the University of Houston to be the Leonhard Center’s first director. Matson set out to meet these goals “by developing curriculum innovations and teaching methods, testing the innovations, and integrating the successful results into the engineering programs.”
Matson’s approach was rooted in the exploration of creativity and innovation through the application of “Intelligent Fast Failure,” believing students could only develop practical skills through risk-taking and extensive experimentation.
His exploratory methods were applied to curriculum development, which soon led to a pilot program on leadership that hinged on the efforts of a group of volunteer undergrads called the Envisioneers.
According to the Leonhard Center’s 1993 strategic plan, the goal was to “bring the profession back to its roots in invention and innovation and allow students to express their creativity, leadership, and teamwork skills, and provide active learning skills experiences to synthesize their knowledge bases.”
By 1994, a formal proposal for the ELDM had been drafted, consisting of courses in innovation, business organization, and entrepreneurship, with a menu of technical innovation and leadership electives, culminating in a capstone course. Electrical Engineering was chosen as the departmental home for the program, and the formal approval process was set in motion. It was not a smooth one.
Some engineering faulty strongly resisted the inclusion of non-engineering courses in the curriculum. Some felt the minor should be housed in the business school. But in the end, the minor was narrowly approved to launch in fall 1995.
Early Implementation: 1995-99
The first two ELDM courses offered in fall 1995 were Technology Based Entrepreneurship and Introduction to Leadership, with a total of 28 students enrolled. Jeffrey Soper, the program’s first director, taught both.
“From the outset, Jack and I shared the desire to create and facilitate a program that developed rather than merely studied leadership,” explained Soper.
“The program overall and each course in specific had to be experiential; focusing on how to think rather than what to think, and had to create situations where participants knew what needed to be done but most probably lacked the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities to accomplish what needed to be done.”
Focusing on the “teachable moments” created by the friction of situations that stretched students beyond their comfort zones, Soper instituted the use of personal leadership journals. These journals were meant to foster reflection on the part of the participants, so that they would develop greater self-knowledge – long considered a pre-requisite for leadership ability.
Requiring students to take on an unheard of amount of autonomy was another strategy employed to help them develop as leaders. For the program’s capstone course, students were required to set their own learning objectives, and then to create projects that forced them to achieve those objectives. Courses were iteratively re-designed each time they were taught, and a culture of continuous improvement and innovation was successfully implemented.
“Simply put in the words of most students, the program changed their lives,” Soper reflected. “Many employers appreciated the enhanced skill set of the graduates of the ELDM and actively recruited them.”
Additionally, the program caught the notice of several academic institutions – as varied as the University of Melbourne, American University of Beirut, and MIT – all of whom observed the Penn State program in an effort to create similar initiatives.
Growing Pains: 2000-05
Donald Horner joined the ELDM as the program’s second director in June, 2000, one day after retiring from his position as an Army battalion commander at Fort Eustis, Virginia. At that time, the program was still dealing with factions in the college who were not yet convinced of its value.
“ELDM was in a state of flux when I arrived,” remembered Horner. “While engineering leadership development had been validated as a legitimate undergraduate minor, there were very few students enrolled in the program, the prior director had moved on, and there was a general sense among engineering faculty members -- and faculty members university-wide -- that this program was in need of further maturation.”
Horner set out to pursue four specific goals to enhance the program: (1) make sure the courses taught were consistent with the leadership literature, (2) increase student and faculty support for the program, (3) stimulate the interest of private and public sector companies to invest in the ELDM, and (4) encourage students from other majors and programs to take the courses and enroll in the minor. It paid off.
“I had a blast throughout my time as ELDM director,” enthused Horner. “It's unique for several reasons. First, having a bona fide leadership program such as ELDM inside a college of engineering is radical -- not just different, but radical. It's an eyebrow raiser. Second, that business students, industrial-organizational psychology students, organizational sociologists, and other undergraduates would be attracted to an engineering minor speaks to the uniqueness of the program.”
Horner was eventually hired by the Naval Academy to serve as an endowed leadership chair “largely based on the work we did at Penn State,” he said, pointing out that “ELDM is quite honestly viewed as an educational standard bearer for 'how to do leadership' in undergraduate education.”
Global Influences: 2005-12
By the time Horner left the ELDM in 2005, the program had evolved into a steady state. The minor was now housed in the newly created School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs, which helped to promote the interdisciplinary nature of the program. Further, the faculty was comfortable with the content and approach, and the students had formed a clear picture of the associated objectives and outcomes. Against this markedly stable backdrop, Rick Schuhmann was tapped to take over the directorship.
“I applied for the job at the urging of my wife Colleen,” explained Schuhmann. “I had not really consumed the “leadership” Kool-Aid and was reticent, but she said if I became director I could engage students in activities that I thought would best develop leadership – real, visceral, meaningful projects with partners in far off places, and adventures to be had.”
As it turned out, Schuhmann was able to do exactly that. His tenure as director is marked by a series of deep and transformative international partnerships, which exposed students firsthand to the complexities of the globalized 21st-century world.
The 2005 launch of a new course titled “International Leadership of Enterprise and Development (ILEAD)” teamed up Penn State students with business students at Corvinus University in Budapest, Hungary. Working together through virtual teaming methodologies, students from both schools collaboratively consulted on real-world projects from clients based in locations across the globe, recruited by faculty from cooperating universities.
By establishing relationships with universities in Morocco, Benin, and Belgium, Schuhmann opened the door for the kinds of projects the ELDM is known for today, in which Penn State students travel across the world to immerse themselves in other cultures, while applying their engineering skills toward real challenges.
For Schuhmann, providing these kinds of experiences was a way to counteract the upsetting trend of racism and xenophobia he witnessed among some Penn State students after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the wars that followed. He recalled his strong “desire to put a dent in the us-versus-them ethnocentrism that the country was a wash in in those post-9/11 days. These international experiences were interwoven with leadership scholarship, project management, and empathic design in such a way that I believe the students were truly transformed by their experiences.”
The Next Steps: 2012-15
Over the past three years, Andrew “Mike” Erdman has devoted his efforts to building upon the excellence defined by his predecessors and expanding the ELDM program to achieve new heights. Under his leadership, yet another generation of Penn State students has traversed the globe, implementing service-learning projects that transform their lives while honing their engineering leadership skills.
But as proud as Erdman has felt about the program, he has refused to rest on the program’s laurels. In his view, the time has come to expand the reach of the ELDM.
"Overall, the program has been an outstanding success, with more than 600 graduates, many of whom have gone on to stellar careers in leading engineering efforts," Erdman noted. "However, during that period of time, more than 23,000 engineering students graduated from University Park, the overwhelming majority of whom had not had an opportunity to benefit from this program."
Erdman wants to reach more of those students, and shared four central strategies for doing so.
First, he has begun production of a series of short videos, called Lion Leadership Lessons, intended for use by instructors of the College of Engineering’s first-year seminar series, to extend basic leadership training to all incoming students in the college.
Second, Erdman plans to offer a certificate in Engineering Leadership that will allow up to another 80 students per year to benefit from many of the leadership courses without committing to a full 18 credit minor.
Third, he’s involved in the development of a new master’s program that will emphasize applying leadership and entrepreneurship skills within existing corporate structures. Two new graduate level courses have been offered already, with two more in development. By spring 2016, Erdman anticipates that the full program will be available for an initial cohort of 20 students.
Finally, Erdman has set his sights on the online market, and cited the need to offer engineering leadership courses to adult students who cannot physically attend campus.
“Our 20-year journey continues to be a work-in-progress,” concluded Erdman. “Fortunately, we have had a solid base to build upon, with lessons learned that have helped to shape our future. ELDM remains today as vital and innovative as ever. That’s one thing that isn’t going to change.”
The Final Word – Voices of ELDM Students
Of course, the most eloquent supporters of the Engineering Leadership Development Minor are the students who graduated from the program. Having worked on experiential projects ranging from gray water processing in Mexico City to agricultural product design in West Africa to rainwater harvesting in Haiti, these students have discovered first-hand the power of learning by doing, on a global scale.
“Understanding other peoples’ cultures and knowing that not everyone is the same as you has been really helpful in the workplace, and just everyday life,” said Abbie Swoboda, 2013 mechanical engineering graduate, who now works for General Motors in Detroit. “The minor taught me that we can change a lot of peoples’ lives with the work that we’re doing.”
“ELDM really gave me a certain confidence,” explained Erick Froede, 2010 mechanical engineering and 2013 graduate degree. His career at Siemens Healthcare has taken him from Boston to Sao Paulo, Brazil. “That allows you to walk into a situation – no matter how challenging it is; no matter how different it is. That was invaluable.”
“And it’s all about challenging yourself,” added Abby Dodson (’12 E SC), who now works for Lear Corporation. “It’s about more than just the engineering knowledge. It’s ‘what are you going to do with it?’”
“This program is one of the best in the country, in terms of taking engineers and turning them into leaders. I think that, with the skills I’ve learned here, I’ll be able to do anything,” enthused chemical engineering junior John Connolly. “I think that is absolutely priceless. You can’t put a value to that knowledge, once you get out in the real world.”