Miami's Leadership Commitment supports an ongoing series of student programs and stimulates a process of organizational change that pervades the university, its programs, services, and offices. The programs of Miami's Leadership Commitment are potentially lifelong.

While any schema of your experience is arbitrary, we have identified five specifics phases of experience while students are on campus that are crucial:

1. Prospective student experiences - Prospective students are making choices about what college or university best fits their needs. Potential Miami students receive literature, visit campus, and talk with faculty, staff and students. We hope that all prospective students hear repeated messages about your importance in our learning community and about how the experience of attending Miami will help you develop your leadership potential.

2. New student experiences - Some of your most exciting experiences will be during Orientation or First-Year Institute. The staff in Orientation Programs are well aware of the leadership values and are trained to live and lead in ways that are consistent with the values. In addition, there are numerous experiences available during summer orientation and during the August First-Year Institute where leadership is an essential factor.

3. Curricular experiences - Because "Miami's Leadership Commitment" is based on the four Principles of the Miami Plan for Liberal Education, students receive a constant reminder of the importance of the leadership values in various classes. The four principles of liberal education are:

* Thinking critically
* Understanding contexts
* Engaging with other learners
* Reflecting and acting

4. Cocurricular experiences - Miami is the first university west of the Allegheny mountains to have residence halls. It was the forth institution in the United States to form Greek-letter organizations and has more founding chapters than any other campus. Miami was named one of the "Involving Colleges" in an extensive research study of high-quality learning environments in the 80s. All of these are to say that involvement and leadership development is imbedded and a crucial part of everything you do at Miami. Conferences, workshops, living-learning programs, retreats and a host of other things are available to learn about leadership outside of class.

5. Senior year experiences - Leaving Miami is hard because our students have such a great experience while in Oxford. However, we wouldn't be doing our job if students weren't "launched" into graduate or professional school and work as an outcome of their attendance. During those critical months of preparation for graduation, students are reminded of the leadership values as a model for living a reflective and constructive life of service.