LEO wins No. 1 in 2018 LEAD awards
St. Joe’s leadership, ethics, and organizational sustainability (LEO) major was named the No. 1 undergraduate leadership program in the nation at the 2018 LEAD Awards, beating more than 100 nominated programs.
The goal of the LEO program is to “create leaders whose goal is to lead and work for the greater good. This includes several components, including leadership, social responsibility, ethics and justice.”
The LEAD Awards, presented by a human resource industry organization called HR.com, recognized the LEO program for its “outstanding achievements in leadership development and programs.” The St. Joe’s LEO program was launched in the fall of 2011.
“Our first official graduating class with all of 2 students was 2012 and every year since 2012 we’ve had more and more students in the major and minor,” said Ronald Dufresne, associate professor and director of the LEO program.
The department of management conducted a study of the programs offered and found that students were interested in learning about leadership. Dufresne led the effort to build the LEO program to satisfy student interest and needs.
“We certainly learned that students were, at the time, having growing interest in learning more about ethics and leadership, sustainability and leadership and leadership more broadly,” Dufresne said.
Dufresne attributes the HR.com No. 1 ranking to the students and faculty in the LEO program.
“Easily the best thing about the program is the completely top-notch students that are attracted to the program,” Dufresne said. “We have professors that really deeply care about the topics that they’re teaching within the LEO coursework.”
St. Joe’s alumna Ally Homan ’17, a marketing and LEO double major, was not surprised when Dufresne emailed her about the program’s No. 1 ranking award.
“It was a no-brainer to me,” Homan said. “You understand why it’s so great because you went through it. I think it’s such a huge representation of the people who are in the program.”
Tim Tabthong ’19, a double major in LEO and managing human capital, said he chose to be a LEO major because the program had a non-traditional focus on business.
“With business there’s always a typical idea, looks like the evil corporate business, Tabthong said. “LEO has more of a different focus, looking at it [business] as a force for good.”
Like Tabthong, Madison Cassel Nucci ’20 chose to become a LEO major because she wanted to combine her interest in business with her passion for the environment.
“What stuck out to me in the LEO major was the organizational sustainability aspect,” Cassel Nucci said.
The LEO program allows students to work in many different sectors, with students choosing to take a year of service, to work for nonprofits or to work for food companies. The LEO major “prepares students to do whatever they want to do upon graduation,” according to Dufresne.
“Our students take the lessons that they learn in the program,” Dufresne said. “Being a more thoughtful, purpose driven, great interpersonal skills, and complex decision maker.”
Homan said she often thinks back to the lessons that she learned while in the LEO program, and ways that she can apply them to her current position as assistant manager of marketing operations at the cosmetics company, L’Oreal.
“Question everything on how to do something better,” Homan said. “Observing relationships around around you, how you can be the best version of yourself, while also challenging others.”
Tabthong attributes his growth and development as a person to the LEO program because he said it has taught him how to be a leader.
“It’s helped me mature a lot, especially looking at how I view situations and how approach different problems,” Tabthong said.
Homan said the LEO program encompasses everything St. Joe’s stands for.
“It captures what the Magis means,” Homan said. “It was doing more in business, challenging the status quo, disrupting the normal in a way that serves others.”
