The Buccino Leadership program is a four-year program that provides its students with methods of cultivating influential leadership specific to their major, according to the Seton Hall website. James Kimble, professor and associate director of the program, said that its aim is to nurture young leaders in order to prepare them for future leadership positions.
Kimble added that the program was originally available only to the Stillman School of Business, but was expanded to all six colleges.
“At the same time, while on campus they will naturally take on a number of leadership roles, and, therefore, will serve as catalysts for every class they are in and every student they work with,” Kimble said.
Priscilla Febus, a freshman communications major, said she likes how the program enables students to build their leadership skills.
“One of the many reasons I chose Seton Hall is because of its emphasis on servant leadership,” Febus said. “I want to grow as a leader through my college career and take what I learn for my life after graduation, and I knew applying to this program would help get me there.”
Ashley Howard, a freshman journalism major, said, “I applied to the leadership program because I felt as though it would be a great opportunity.
Overall, I want to learn how to become a better leader for not only for myself, but for the people that look up to me.”
Kimble explained that part of the program involves specialized courses and weekly meetings.
“The [freshmen] class across all six programs meets every Friday for either a leadership lecture or an interdisciplinary team project,” Kimble said.
"Many of the schools offer their classes special academic classes. And as the business program is already modeling, there are multiple initiatives and projects that the students undertake, both on campus and off.”
Howard added that another aspect of the program entails scholars to be paired up with coaches with whom they meet with on a regular basis.
Febus said that the application process for the program was intensive and consisted of multiple parts such as test scores, GPA, a short essay and other information.
While entry into the program is only available to freshmen, Kimble said the eligibility might change in the future.
“While the program’s philosophy is to maximize a student’s leadership education by working with them from the time they step on campus to graduation, there has been talk of integrating students at later points in their careers depending on retention levels in the program,” Kimble said.
Febus shared her hopes of becoming a better and more influential leader with the help of the program.
“When applying to the program I wrote about wanting to grow as a leader and how I want to be a leader that speaks out on issues to make a difference,” Febus said. “I want to build a stronger self-confidence that will allow me to reach my potential in personal and professional life.”
Howard added that the end goal of the program is the development of their current scholars to become future leaders through improving upon themselves.
Howard said, “What I hope to achieve through this program is steps to becoming a better me, and steps into becoming a stronger leader.”
Adam Varoqua can be reached at adam.varoqua@student.shu.edu.
