“Roll up your sleeves and get to work”: Understanding undergraduate leadership experiences in student organizations

Abstract

Leaders are needed to address the agriculture industry’s increasingly complex and interconnected problems. Colleges of agriculture who offer leadership development coursework and degree programs often support student organizations to provide critical everyday opportunities for students to practice leadership in an authentic environment. This qualitative case study examined undergraduate students’ perceptions of, and experience with, leadership in student organizations in one Midwestern college of agriculture. Results indicated that students participated in student organizations to find students with similar interests, connect with potential employers, and improve their own employability. Results also indicated that leadership was typically conflated with position, and that industrial approaches to leadership were most common. This study has implications for administrators and faculty responsible for advising student organizations, and, more broadly, for leadership development programs in colleges of agriculture.