Leadership Academy

The W.S. Lee College of Engineering Leadership Academy is a two-year intensive program fueled by industry collaboration for highly-motivated and capable undergraduate engineering and engineering technology students.

The Academy is an extracurricular program modeled after leadership training programs for young professionals in industry. It equips cohort students with leadership competencies to not only fulfill leadership roles on campus, but to successfully lead and drive innovation within the engineering sector.

The core Leadership Academy curriculum is delivered through off-campus, weekend retreats at no cost to participants. During the first Fall and Spring semesters, students also participate in weekly one-hour hands-on sessions to practice their training and reinforce their leadership skills. Through the program students learn to:

Janessa Schwallie ’16
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering
B.A. in German

“The Leadership Academy taught me how to build confidence in my presence and impact in not only my professional life, but in my personal life as well. I took part in the academy during a crucial moment in my educational career when I had just begun to think more critically about my future intentions and how to market myself to different engineering industries. I learned how to build camaraderie amongst peers and professionals, how to consider my own ethics and values when faced with difficult decisions, and how to work with like-minded peers to develop and successfully deliver on a project that I cared for deeply, youth education, to create a difference in the local Charlotte community.”