The NUFYP Foundations of Leadership course supports students’ adjustment to university life at a personal, social, and academic level, empowering students to effectively understand and lead themselves and others. On a personal level, students learn and apply different time-management, goal setting, and scheduling techniques, and complete weekly reflective journal entries. Students reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses and apply those insights to their personal development so that they can chart a course for their life that reflects their values and strengths. The Foundations of Leadership course also introduces concepts from leadership theory and styles to allow students to act as both leaders and followers in teamwork and to refine their approaches to interpersonal interactions. The first semester is largely content based, and the second is more practical, as students put these skills and ideas into practice and develop a project that reflects their values and interests and allows them to reach out to the wider community to play a leadership role in their area of interest, promoting and supporting the causes that are important to them. Some of the feedback that we have gotten from previous students:
The leadership course is the foundation of your academic success in university life. This course not only consists of a theoretical part that you need to cram as in other courses but on the contrary, there is more practice in knowing yourself and the world around you. Thanks to the leadership course, I was able to realize my goals with the help of SMART techniques and show my leadership qualities in group classes. In fact, this course is very interesting, because here you will create your own projects. For me, the leadership course that helped me realize my little idea to help the environment is still close. Thank you, to my mentor, Elmira Tursunkhanova, and my classmates who went this way with me. Az-Dana Kenzhebayeva. Student of the School of Mining and Geosciences. While students learn more about different leadership styles and how to put them into practice, I think the weekly writing assignments have been especially helpful in developing my critical thinking and writing skills. Now I can easily write a 500-word essay giving my opinion on certain events in an organized and understandable way. Moreover, I learned how to properly manage my time, which helped me not to miss a single deadline while studying at the foundation program. I am currently studying in the SSH chemistry program. Zhaniya Kali