An assessment of a community college\u27s grow-your-own leadership program: perceptions of program graduates and community college staff members: a sequential mixed-method case study

Community college scholars and researchers have expressed the need to develop community college staff, at all levels, for leaders and leadership roles in anticipation to forecasted retirements. These retirements represent a loss of experienced leaders and leadership can produce leadership gaps which can impact the ability of community colleges to continue its mission of providing educational services to the residents of the community they serve. Some community colleges have invested resources in training the next cadre of leaders and leadership to negate this loss of leaders and leadership. One such training method is a Grow-Your-Own Leadership (GYOL) program. An assessment of the community college’s GYOL program graduates and program administrators was undertaken to collect primary data on their perceptions of whether leader or leadership skills and competencies were developed or enhanced as a result of participation in the GYOL program. Findings of this study indicate that community college GYOL program graduates’ leader and leadership skills and competencies were developed or enhanced. Some of these graduates did enter the leadership pipeline and filled leadership positions at the college. One of the recommendations offered by this study was to explore the methodology and conceptual framework used in this study to determine their viability to assess the outcomes of other community college’s GYOL programs