Leadership courses enhance resumes

Employers might focus on grades, job experience and references when reviewing potential employees' resumes, but upon seeing "leadership," their eyes widen.\nStudents on the Bloomington campus now have the resources available to make this eye-widening experience happen by enrolling in leadership classes and even fulfilling a newly created 15-credit undergraduate leadership minor.\nTwo HPER courses, R100: Participant Leadership Development and R100: Organizational Leadership Development, are currently available and instructed by Richard Mull. \nHaving been involved with IU and Recreational Sports for more than 30 years, Mull noticed many students were devoting large amounts of time to leadership activities.\nHe formulated an idea on how these students could get credit for such participation.\nMull instructs the independent study courses where those involved in leadership roles with advisers keep journals, write a paper and are evaluated twice a semester. Their grades depend on the progress they've made, which in turn determines whether they merit their one credit for the course.\nCurrently, the classes are full with approximately 120 students enrolled. \n"To this point, the program has been well received," Mull said. "The classes are pretty popular.\n"We want to help students recognize their leadership potential and help them develop the skills necessary to succeed in this area," he said in a statement.\nAs a coordinator of leadership development, graduate student Amber Havens has worked closely with Mull in organizing the program in conjunction with the Department of Recreation and Park Administration and the Council of Advancing Student Leadership.\n"I think it's one of the most important experiences you can get as an undergrad," Havens said. "It's one of the most important things employers look for on resumes. It's necessary for students to be able to represent themselves well."\nHavens said that to get involved, students must talk to their activity advisers like Jonathan Purvis for evaluation through the span of the courses.\nPurvis, director of the IU Student Foundation, serves as an R100 adviser and says that his job entails making sure students are able to make the connection between their leadership experience gained through IUSF and the concepts taught in the course.\n"For our program, it is a perfect link between academics and the real world extracurricular experience we provide for close to 2,000 IU students involved with IUSF activities either as student volunteers or participants in events such as the Little 500 and IU Sing."\nPurvis, Havens and Mull all agree that the leadership qualities developed before graduation are key elements in succeeding in the working world.\n"Personally, I attribute much of what I am able to do today to my experiences at IU outside of the classroom," Purvis said. "That is the real value of R100. It promotes and acknowledges the merit of such activities within an academic framework."\nMull thinks such characteristics don't always come naturally, but those who take part in the classes benefit from the experience.\n"Students have to ask themselves if they want to be do-ers or followers," Mull said. "A good do-er has to have good leadership qualities. Some already do, but many don't automatically have that. That's why we're here"