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Le Moyne College Political Science Department

Welcome to the Political Science Department at Le Moyne College in Syracuse NY

Leadership Experience for Activism Program (L.E.A.P.)

The Leadership Experience for Activism Program provides the student with a unique combination of experiences to prepare him or her for a life of leadership in a democracy. It is a model of engaged learning – linking the academic with the experiential with the goal of developing civic leaders for the future.

Admission

Students must apply to the chair of the department of political science for admission. They must be political science majors or minors and maintain a G.P.A. of at least 3.25. (G.P.A. requirements may be waived at the discretion of the chair.)

The Le Moyne College transcript distinguishes L.E.A.P. scholars, thus enhancing job and graduate school opportunities and identifying the democratic leadership potential of participating students.

There are five dimensions to the program:

  1. Service Learning: L.E.A.P. students take three political science courses that contain one credit service learning components.
  2. Internship: Students must complete an internship in a not-for-profit organization.
  3. Off-campus experience: The student must spend at least one month in an academic program off-campus (e.g. a semester abroad, a semester in Washington, D.C.)
  4. Student leadership experience: During at least one semester the student must hold a position of leadership in a Le Moyne student organization (e.g. student senate, political science academy, College Democrats, POWER)
  5. Research: In the senior year the student must write a major research paper about democratic leadership. The paper will be directed by a political science faculty member