University of Richmond - Jepson School of Leadership Studies

In case you missed it, check out Barton Swaim's Nov. 13 McDowell Institute presentation, "The Zero-Risk Society." Stating that the U.S. "risk odometer is broken," the Wall Street Journal opinion columnist explained the pitfalls of America's aversion to risk taking in the financial sector, in our method of selecting presidential candidates, and even in the way we design playgrounds. He closed his talk by telling college students, "You might consider pursuing a path in which it's possible to fail — and possible to succeed wildly!" Watch or listen to the talk: https://sl.richmond.edu/hO

Richmond Mayor-elect Danny TK Avula spoke to Dr. Thad Williamson's and Dr. Bo Yun Park's leadership studies students today about why he ran for office and what he hopes to accomplish as mayor. "The mayor of a city has an incredible opportunity to align the resources, align partners, and use the bully pulpit to benefit citizens," he said. He encouraged students to get involved in the city where they attend college: "Find places you care about. Work across racial and economic lines to build authentic relationships." Dr. Williamson serves as the director of Avula's transition team. #leadership #mayor

New research by leadership studies and psychology professor Crystal Hoyt and colleagues finds that the more people believe that political ideology is fixed, the more they think that Republicans and Democrats are inherently different. The research also explores how media messaging influences beliefs regarding political ideology and partisanship. #PartisanPrejudice #PartisanPolitics #GrowthMindset #polarization #partisanship #media https://sl.richmond.edu/wr

Leadership studies students Bennett Slosman, Will Richards, Eleanor Lapin, Caleb Silvergleid, and Dahlstan Osman represented the Jepson School in the Southeast Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl last weekend in Winter Park, Florida. Coached by Jepson professor Javier Hidalgo, the Spiders argued four cases on ethical questions about housing the homeless, the July CrowdStrike-related IT outages, AI chatbots, and teen cellphone use in the classroom. "I learned how to better structure an argument and wrap it up into a coherent conclusion," Silvergleid said. "I also learned the importance of politeness and likeability. Most of all, I learned how fun it is to compete with a mutually supportive team." #ethics #debate

Student Leader Spotlight: A leadership studies and journalism major, senior Warner “Jimmy” James covers athletic events as sports editor for The Collegian student newspaper. He’s also president of the Richmond Octāves men’s a cappella group, a supervisor in the Office of Annual Giving, and even started the podcast A Room Full of Spiders, where he interviews University of Richmond alumni. As an Office of Admissions intern, he said he tells families on all his campus tours that choosing to come to Richmond "is truly the best decision I've ever made!” #LeadingTheWay https://sl.richmond.edu/wn

Join Jepson School professor and Native scholar David Wilkins at noon tomorrow at the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Building, 109 E. Jones St., Raleigh, for a discussion of the Indian Citizenship Act at 100. Or watch online at https://lnkd.in/e_uHfMWk. Hosted by the North Carolina American Indian Heritage Commission. #Native #Indigenous #IndianCitizenshipAct

Congratulations to Jepson School alum Ariel Rothstein Clemmer on becoming a member of the 2025 Leadership New Hampshire class! She has devoted her career to ensuring access to legal resources to all who need them and currently serves as the executive director of the nonprofit 603 Legal Aid. #LeadingTheWay

"Leadership doesn't stop at borders, it has international contexts," said Dean Sandra Peart, speaking today at a lunchtime deans' forum on international education at the University of Richmond. Hosted by the provost and the Office of International Education, the forum was part of International Education Week. Peart discussed the Jepson class Leadership in International Contexts; Jepson at Cambridge, the school's study-abroad program; and the Jepson Scholars Program, which awards full scholarships to a few graduating leadership studies seniors to master's programs at the University of Oxford. She also talked about the school's increasingly international faculty and their research into global leadership issues. #leadership #internationalleadership #studyabroad #global #internationaleducation Learn more about Jepson's international faculty here: https://sl.richmond.edu/wd

Join us in person or via livestream at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the University of Richmond for the next Jepson Leadership Forum talk, "How 2020 Shaped 2024," presented by New York University sociologist Eric Klinenberg. A book signing and reception will follow the talk. Register for this free, public event: https://sl.richmond.edu/4C

"A tiny group of people can suck up all the oxygen... and make it seem like they speak for all of us. They don't," said Duke University sociologist and political scientist Christopher Bail, while discussing social media during an interview with Jepson School junior Kate Chasin. The founding director of Duke's Polarization Lab explained how generative artificial intelligence can mitigate polarization on social media. #socialmedia #polarization #GenerativeAI #AI This short Take 5 interview was filmed prior to Dr. Bail's Oct. 1 Jepson Leadership Forum presentation, "Bridging Divides with Generative AI." https://sl.richmond.edu/o6