The McDonough Center offers a wide variety of programs and activities that are open to all students at Marietta College. The flagship of the Center is the McDonough Leadership Program, a comprehensive, nationally recognized, Liberal-Arts based, leadership development for undergraduate students.
All of our initiatives are centered on five programmatic areas:
- Community Engagement – empowering students to be active leaders in their communities, promoting critical thinking about social justice issues, and developing citizens committed to a lifetime of public service. The Center’s Office of Community Engagement coordinates activities, such as Alternative Brake trips; Make a Difference Day; and community service projects.
- Global Leadership – immersing students into different cultures and timely global leadership issues. Related activities: Leadership Study Abroad Program; and the McDonough Worldwide Blogging Program.
- Business Leadership – helping students to sharpen their leadership skills in the for-profit sector. Related initiatives: The Fitzgerald Executive-in-Residence Program; Visiting Executive Program; and the Peoples Bank Undergraduate Business Case Competition.
- Nonprofit Leadership – developing leadership skills for the nonprofit sector. Related initiatives: The Nonprofits LEAD, a program designed to build the capacity of local nonprofit organizations; and the Next Gen Program, training for students interested in serving in local nonprofits boards.
- Research – promoting student, faculty, and staff scholarship in Leadership Studies. Our faculty and staff maintain an active research agenda, contributing to the body of knowledge in the leadership literature. Students have an opportunity to engage in undergraduate research (e.g., an Honors Thesis on a leadership topic), as well as assist faculty and staff in their scholarly work. Related activities: The annual McDonough Leadership Conference; delegations to national and global conferences.
In addition to our many leadership development opportunities, the Center also offers an academic program focused on Organizational Social Responsibility (OSR), open to all students at Marietta College. The OSR program can be combined with any undergraduate major on campus.
The National Society for Leadership and Success (NSLS).
Marietta College has a local chapter of NSLS, started in 2020