The Leadership and Global Understanding (LGU) program at La Salle University is an academic minor that prepares students to become engaged citizens and civic leaders at local, regional, national, and international levels. The LGU program encourages students to be involved in the world around them, whether on La Salle’s campus, in the Philadelphia region, or abroad.
Through civic leadership and travel-study courses, students learn about the economic, education, political, and social systems they encounter in a very personal way. The program combines traditional and experiential learning to deepen students’ understanding of both the international communities they visit and the local Philadelphia community they live in during their time at La Salle.
This experiential course examines the various communities students are members of–the campus community, the city of Philadelphia, the greater Philadelphia area, the nation and the global community. In particular, students will explore the Philadelphia community, its history and the various groups which constitute it. Using Philadelphia as a model, students will learn to see the “community” as multi-layered and will begin to ask important questions about the rights and obligations of citizenship within such a community.
Studies in Leadership and Global Understanding is a multidisciplinary capstone course whose primary purpose is to integrate travel study courses, designated electives, home and abroad projects, curricular and extracurricular experiences including service learning opportunities of the student as he or she has progressed through the minor. Whereas the introductory course focused on the campus and Philadelphia communities, the capstone course focuses on the bridges between these more immediate communities and the global community with which the student now has some direct experience.
Our faculty teach across disciplines, bringing a breadth of knowledge and experience to enhance students’ education, within the classroom and beyond.