Coaching and Mentoring in a Capstone Leadership Development Program

The Snyder Leadership Legacy Fellows is a year-long program for undergraduate students entering into their final year at Kansas State University. Students are selected from across the university each spring to deepen their knowledge of leadership, connect with mentors to explore the transition from student to professional life, elevate their passion for service, and experience real-world opportunities to exercise leadership skills. Snyder Fellows experience personal and professional development rooted in Hall of Fame Football Coach Bill Snyder’s 16 Goals for Success. The ultimate goal of the program is to develop change agents on campus, in the community, throughout the state and beyond. An important component of the program is providing the students with leadership coaches that meet with the students once a month, focusing on transitioning to career or graduate school and leadership challenges students are facing. Over time the structure of the coaching has changed and lessons have been learned. This work examines how coaching can benefit students and lessons learned from coaching as part of a co-curricular student leadership program.