Leadership

Elon’s Center for Leadership supports you as you learn, practice and make meaning from being a leader at Elon. The center offers leadership programming, coaching and engagement opportunities. Take leadership workshops. Join the Phoenix Leaders Program, an opportunity for emerging leaders to engage in a reflective leadership journey during their first year at Elon. Apply to be an Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellow, earn scholarship money, take Leadership Studies classes and become part of a co-hort. Complete a leadership Experiential Learning Requirement.

When Nick Muller was in his first year at Elon, one of his engineering professors mentioned that when he was in college, he was on a team that built a racecar from scratch. Intrigued, Nick started doing research. Four years later, Nick developed a team, Phoenix Racing, connected with engineers, raised money, sourced materials and along with his team members is designing and building a Formula 1 electric car in a prototype lab in one of the buildings in Elon’s Innovation Quad.

“No one on this team knows how to build a car, but we’re doing it anyway. It’s also very meaningful. It matters a lot to us and to the engineering program. It shows what we’re capable of as Elon engineers.”

Genevieve Emerson majored in outdoor leadership and education and strategic communications at Elon. In her classes, she heard stories about how crises happen and how leaders either make or break the situation. Before she graduated in 2023, she was working as a ski instructor at Winter Park Resort in Colorado, leading backpacking trips. During one outing, she used the leadership skills and lessons she learned in her Elon classes to keep participants safe when a bear showed up. Genevieve continues to work at Winter Park and is planning to complete a graduate program in adaptive outdoor recreation.

“With each experience it became even more clear that I would love to keep leading trips for people. I really enjoy it. I think it’s so fulfilling being able to introduce people who haven’t been to a place and have them filled with awe.”

Christopher D’Inzeo, a chemistry major, took on a leadership role with fellow Elon student Sam Ramirez and developed STEM Saturday at Elon, an outreach event for local high school students. From conceptualizing to applying for grants and creating partnerships with STEM organizations at Elon and local high schools, Christopher used leadership skills he’s honed at Elon to make the event a success.

“I don’t think we could have been this involved in kickstarting a brand-new program at most other schools. I hope to have some part of my career be dedicated to science outreach and communication, and so I think that helping to develop this program has prepared me for that.”