The main objective of Leading with Character and Academics is to begin students on a journey of personal development, character formation, and academic excellence. In Leading with Character and Academics, students will be challenged to lean into their fears and to begin identifying, verbalizing, and honing their unique skill sets and developing practices that will shape them into excellent students and leaders. These objectives are achieved through weekly comfort zone challenges, regular written and verbal reflections on personal growth, assignments built upon various personal strengths assessments, and a variety of projects and papers around the character traits of preparation, perseverance, responsibility, integrity, courage, and empathy.

Leading with Service introduces a foundation for how to lead to get extraordinary results. The main objectives of the course are to provide each student: (1) an understanding of the authentic meaning of leadership, (2) a set of nationally recognized leadership practices, (3) the opportunity and space to apply the practices in the community, and (4) a feeling of empowerment to lead and serve in a comfortable role of an authentic, bold servant leader as she sets off to college. The Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders defined in the The Student Leadership Challenge (Posner/Kouzes) will provide the framework to guide classroom discussion and will be the methodology to guide the completion of a social change service project.

Leading with Business is an introduction to entrepreneurship supported by materials from the Wharton business school of the University of Pennsylvania. This hand-on class applies previously learned leadership principles in a business context. Students will learn how businesses innovate, remain competitive, market and brand, price, operate their value chain, and track costs and financial results. The semester’s capstone project is a unique student developed business which
applies what they have learned and creates profits for a local non-profit organization. Upon completion, students will have a hands-on appreciation for the role of an entrepreneur, the intricacies of managing a business, the importance of project management, building trust in a collaborative environment, and the confidence that comes with accomplishing a stretch goal.

Prerequisite: Leading with Service

Leading with Personal Finance provides students with a solid foundation in all aspects of personal finance. It is oriented toward concepts, detailed knowledge, and tools needed to manage personal financial matters during college and as young professionals. Students will create a simulated life including budgeting, use of credit, job onboarding, savings and investing, insurance and taxes. Key concepts include making financial choices, zero based budgeting, the irrational dependence on debt, the definition of financial freedom, professional fulfillment, the impact of student debt, the power of compounding, and the need to mitigate the risks in life. At IWA, financial literacy is part of our leadership curriculum because the foundation of good money management is rooted in character attributes such as discipline, vision, self-control, perseverance, humility, and generosity which are the foundations of great leadership. All the activities in the course build a unique financial plan for each student.