Leadership Development
Leadership Development
We help students realize their potential — not just as students, but as leaders. Students find their passion and take charge of it by working as organization presidents, founding clubs, serving on university committees and volunteering in the local community.
From opportunities on campus, like becoming a resident advisor or peer tutor, to participating in leadership and service in local organizations in the greater community, plenty of W&L students find themselves in leadership positions throughout their four years on campus.
Leadership Initiatives
LEAD Program
The LEAD Program is a two-year, comprehensive leadership program purposed to empower students to discover their potential and develop their skills as leaders. The program aims to enhance student learning and development in areas of self-knowledge and leadership competence through various workshops, teambuilding exercises, roundtable discussions, reflective activities, and service.
AIM Program
The mission of the Advanced Immersion and Mentoring (AIM) initiative is to instill an increased sense of confidence and belonging within incoming first-year students through immersive research and programming with W&L faculty and staff. The program offers residential and virtual opportunities.
Other Opportunities to Lead
Student Government
Student councils and committees are a vital part of the Washington and Lee community. We believe in structures that are student-led, student-governed and student-elected.
Residence Life
Residence Life leaders perform many roles, such as Resident Adviser or Community Assistant, living with and providing programming for students in on-campus housing. You also could be part of the First-Year Orientation Committee, which helps to prepare campus for the next incoming class, or be a Pre-Orientation Trip Leader.
Peer Connectors
The Peer Connectors Program is a team of student volunteers dedicated to helping other students navigate their college experience by answering questions, providing advice and offering support.
Greek Life
Fraternities and sororities exist for the personal and professional development of their members and their community. Greek life is typically founded on principles of scholarship, leadership, friendship and service that are taught internally by a national ritual to the members who strive to exhibit those principles in their daily lives.
In the Community
W&L students are actively engaged in the Lexington and Rockbridge County communities. Examples range from tutoring in local schools to providing interpretation services for the hospital, and from helping to build houses with Habitat for Humanity to working at the local domestic violence shelter.
Leadership through Service
75% of the student body participates in community service on campus or across the globe.
W&L Student Empowers Her Community through Davis Projects for Peace
Anshika Patel ’26 spent her summer scaling up an initiative offering public health education and vocational training in her community.
A chance encounter in the Science Center as a child set Alyssa Cirrincione ’25 on a path to pursue her curiosity at W&L.
W&L Holds 2025 Leadership Excellence Awards
The annual banquet recognizes the many individual and group accomplishments of W&L students within the past year.
Looking Forward and Giving Back
The Class of 2025’s Senior Gift Committee co-chairs have already sailed past their monetary goal as they look toward Commencement.
Students in W&L’s Bonner Program spent the last year creating a digital map of health care networks for people experiencing homelessness worldwide.
Positivity Meets Personal Connections
Mariam Drammeh ’25 has approached research, internships and campus involvement with an eye toward a future rooted in service to others.
Three W&L students partnered with an NGO in Ghana this summer to create a training program for aspiring female entrepreneurs.
Adhip Adhikari ’27 spent much of his summer creating a library at a secondary school near his family’s home in Katmandu, Nepal.
Veronika Kolosova ’25 has explored the liberal arts experience at W&L through campus involvement and an interdisciplinary approach to her studies.
Addie-Grace Cook ’25, a politics major with a double minor in Middle East and South Asia studies and poverty and human capability studies, is spending her summer making an impact in the greater Rockbridge community through a Shepherd Program internship with Project Horizon.
Melos Ambaye ’25 is helping children in Ethiopia as part of her Shepherd summer internship.
Ben Bankston ’25 is finding opportunities at W&L to challenge himself in and out of the classroom.