The Leadership Development Program, also known as the LDP, is a leadership program designed to recognize and develop potential student leaders at Mercyhurst.

The program is non-credit based and multi-level, allowing students to progress through stages. The LDP engages participants so that they can discover their own leadership styles and learn about their leadership interests, while developing new skills.

The LDP program is dynamic, meaning there is a combination of events for particpants to learn from, including workshops, speakers, breakout sessions and more.

One example of an LDP event would be the Emerging Leaders Workshop.

The Workshop consists of a 3-hour exploration of personalities, communication styles and group dynamics, in the context of how these things relate to effective leadership.

Students are nominated to the Emerging Leaders Workshop by faculty, staff members and current LDP students.

The Leadership Development Program Levels 1-3 begin in the fall semester and continue throughout the academic year. Each level builds upon the previous. This program is mainly focused on leadership discovery and can look great on a resume.

Throughout LDP, participants network with other student leaders.

Additionally, the program is tied to Mercyhurst’s core values so that Levels 1-3 each contain a service component. This helps with connecting leadership the Mercy Mission.

Steph Przepiora is the Leadership and Outreach coordinator for Campus Involvement who facilitates the program, and is collecting applications that can be found on the Leadership Development Program Hub page. The application process is fairly simple.

Asking for information such as your class year and major. It will also ask about any prior leadership experience.

“You don’t need to have any leadership experience to join LDP. The application will ask about your goals and what you hope to gain from participating in the Leadership Development Program,” said Przepiora. The LDP is open for anyone who wishes to apply. “While there are three levels, students can choose to do just one year or two, or all three. All students start in Level 1,” Przepiora said.

For each level, participants are required to attend and reflect on a speaker that they can relate to leadership education, typically a speaker hosted by MSG.

They will also participate in interactive workshops. Each level only meets about 8-10 times each year, so even very busy students will have the time to participate.

Keep in mind that you are not required to complete all three levels. Students may apply to Level 1 without attending an Emerging Leaders Workshop.

However, to move on to the next level, you must complete the level prior.

“The Leadership Development Program has been around in some format for 14 years,” said Przepiora. “While things have changed over that time, the focus remains on developing the leadership potential of students here at the Hurst.”