The Fall Leadership Institute began in the fall of 2000 to offer students a reflective experience centered on the study of character development and moral leadership.
The Center for Leadership & Character Development is anchored in the conviction that character is not fully formed or permanently fixed before a student enters of finishes college but develops over a period of time and is influenced by the control one has over his or her actions.
It is the Fall Leadership Institute that seeks to furnish educational reflective experiences and conversations on these topics.
Diversity Education & Exchange Project
Inaugurated in 2001-2002, the Diversity Education & Exchange Project (DEEP) is a program designed to identify students interested in taking an active leadership role in bringing about greater diversity awareness on campus through peer education.
The project is a collaboration between Savannah State University and a predominantly white college or university located in another region of the country that enables students from both institutions to engage in a "cultural exchange.
Typically, DEEP is comprised of four components as follows: (1) experiential learning about diversity; (2) values clarification about diversity; (3) historical understandings about diversity; and (4) an applied application of diversity within both unique educational settings.
Alternative Spring Break Program
The Center for Leadership & Character Development offers the Alternative Spring Break (ASB) Program that seeks to educate students about complex social and cultural issues through direct service, experiential learning, group discussion, and individual reflection.
Immersing students in diverse cultures and environments across the country to engage in service-oriented learning, ASB is also designed to help transform students into advocates of social change on issues affecting our communities.
Typically, ASB includes service-learning experiences concerning poverty, HIV/AIDS, and children’s issues.
Spring Leadership Program
The Spring Leadership Program is designed to be an experiential form of leadership, focusing on active learning and practice related to a specific leadership topic.
Student-participants, for example, may find themselves developing a document related to suggestions on the university’s student ethos or may apply a leadership model to a real life situation.
Leadership Lecture Series
The Leadership Lecture Series is another way in which the Center for Leadership & Character Development seeks to provide students with opportunities to explore their understandings of leadership.
Through a diverse group of accomplished, nationally known speakers, students will have the opportunity to hear and contemplate multiple perspectives on leadership, character, ethics, society, and a number of issues germane to developing leadership knowledge, skill, and effectiveness.
Previous speakers include Dr. Bernice Berry, Dr. Na'im Akbar, Kevin Powell, Toni Blackman, Rae Lewis-Thornton, Chuck D, Ayinde Jean-Baptiste, Rev. Bernice King, Jane Elliott, Judge Marilyn Milian and Dr. Tonea Stewart.
