Vanguard University of Southern California

New MA in Leadership Studies with a focus in leadership and spirituality


Transform your world.  Nurture your soul.

Today’s leadership demands require us to truly understand how teams can multiply individual efforts toward deep change and transforming results.  Even more crucial, is our conviction that the heart of organizational transformation is deep change within the leader – for Christian leaders this means exploring our spirituality.

The MA in Leadership Studies with a focus in leadership & spirituality offers leaders the opportunity to dig deeply into the rich literature of Christian spirituality and leadership studies – while forming a meaningful community of leaders who share wisdom from personal journeys.

Designed with the active leader's schedule in mind

  • You can complete the program in two and a half years.  
  • Students complete the program entirely through four-day intensive courses.  So, even if you do not live near Vanguard’s campus, you can visit us for a few days at a time, once or twice a semester.


The Cohort: A dynamic learning community


I am thrilled to consider myself a friend of Vanguard and the cohort program. I can say with certainty that were it not for this program, my graduate school experience would have been nothing more than a ritual that I put myself through… . But the cohort program has been so much more than that! I have been stretched, strengthened and solidified as a leader. I have made new friends and experienced a camaraderie that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

–Kurt Johnston, Junior High Pastor at Saddleback Church

An important aspect of this program is its emphasis on forming a meaningful community of leaders—for authentic growth occurs in community.  Students are involved with a group of ten to fifteen peers—in a cohort—throughout the entire program.  Members of a cohort take an academic journey together that is created by the gifts, wisdom, and experiences of its members in their engagement with the curriculum and a variety of professors.


Schedule for cohort starting in January 2008*

Coursework

 January 22-25, 2008    Leadership and Character Development
 February 26-29, 2008   Theology and Theory of Leadership 
 May 27-30, 2008   Research Methodology: Leadership Studies
 September 16-19, 2008  History of Spirituality
 October 7-10, 2008 Leadership and Global Issues
   
 January 20-23, 2009    Mission and Culture in Theological Perspective
 February 17-20, 2009   Spiritual Formation
 May 12-15, 2009    Team Building and Conflict Management
 September 1-4, 2009  Church and Contemporary Moral Issues
 October 6-9, 2009   Soul Care of Others
 
 Capstone  
 January 12-15, 2010  Spiritual Direction
 February 9-12, 2010   Exit Option Design and Proposal: Leadership Studies
 May 2010  Directed Reading or Project or Thesis (Spiritual retreat/travel)

*  The university reserves the right to change the dates of classes with prior notice given to students.

Download a copy of the schedule here.


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