Since 1877 the University of Manitoba has created leaders – of thought, political and business ilk – and now the Asper School of Business offers a course specifically mandated to teach leadership.

The pilot course, which launched in January and is now coming to a close, is called Leadership 2010: Learning to Lead. The course teaches students different leadership theories and then the students do a practicum of sorts: they find and implement solutions to societal problems. The pioneering students have created Face the Flood, a series of initiatives designed to help Manitobans fend of the Red River’s watery excess.

The course is a homegrown idea, built from the ground up by University of Manitoba faculty and staff; they did not base it on any other existing program already operating at a university, but rather wanted to build a learning environment that would meet the needs of developing leaders from various communities.

Although the course is housed in the I.H. Asper School of Business, it has been designed to accommodate students from every department; indeed, 48 students from engineering, economics, geology, history, social work, among others, are taking part.

“The students are showing their skills as a leader within the classroom environment and then they turn around and give back to the community. So to me, the great part is the civic engagement: they come to the university to learn and they go back into the community they came from to apply themselves and the content they learned. It’s wonderful to see,” says Neil Fassina, Head of the Department of Business Administration in the Asper school.

For more information contact Sean Moore, public affairs, University of Manitoba, 204-474-7963 (sean_moore@umanitoba.ca).