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Buccino Leadership Institute

Buccino Leadership Institute Named Most Outstanding for 2022 by ALE  

Image of the glass ALE 2022 Award- Outstanding Program-Seton Hall University- Buccino Leadership InstituteThe Buccino Leadership Institute at Seton Hall University was named this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Program award by the Association of Leadership Educators (ALE). The announcement was made at the association’s annual conference in Kansas City.

Founded in 1990, ALE is comprised of top leadership development educators from around the country and is said to be “the premier international professional association for leadership educators.” Recognition for the Outstanding Program award is highly competitive. Previous awardees include Rice University, Virginia Tech, Purdue, Texas A&M and last year’s winner Notre Dame.

This is the first time Seton Hall has won ALE’s Outstanding Program award. Previously, the Gerald P. Buccino ’63 Center for Leadership Development — the predecessor to the Institute based within the University’s Stillman School of Business — was ranked the #1 Leadership Development Certificate Program in the nation by HR.com, five years in a row.

“Buccino initiatives have enhanced Seton Hall’s overall efforts to foster leaders for more than 25 years. The unique qualities of these programs have resulted in remarkable success that is further affirmed by this prestigious award,” said Joseph E. Nyre, Ph.D., president of Seton Hall.

Seton Hall University Provost Katia Passerini agreed, “We are deeply honored to receive this award from the Association of Leadership Educators, a premier body devoted to excellence in education. Recognition of the University’s Buccino Institute as this year’s ALE Outstanding Program Award does not come as a surprise — but it does come as a truly welcome addition to our accolades.”

To be considered for the Outstanding Program award, prospective universities are required to submit a detailed nomination packet to ALE, which must include evidence that substantiates the program’s impact on individuals, organizations, institutions and the community.

Seton Hall’s nomination packet showcased the Buccino Leadership Institute’s innovative curriculum. The four-year university-wide, non-credit bearing program includes intensive workshops, student-led initiatives, professional leadership coaching, field trips to the National 9/11 Memorial and Gettysburg, industry-leading assessments and multimodal feedback.

But the real differentiator of the Buccino Leadership program, according to former Executive Director Bryan Price, who founded the Institute, is its Inter-disciplinary Teams (IDTs). These are real-world, semester-long leadership projects that allow students to lead each other with minimal professorial facilitation and maximum opportunities for growth. A prime example is the project from rising junior Jason Santos, which created a university-wide lending closet to loan formal business attire to students in need.

The Buccino Leadership Institute’s nomination for the ALE Outstanding Program award also included facts about the Institute’s impact. Some of the most notable metrics and distinguishing characteristics include:

  • The Institute is a truly interdisciplinary program that serves 265 students from 34 different majors.
  • More than 30% of the university’s esteemed Servant Leader Scholars are Buccino leadership students, even though they make up around 3% of the student population.
  • Almost 26% of all campus leadership positions are held by Buccino leaders.
  • Buccino leaders develop via feedback from multiple sources – peer, faculty, ICF-leadership coach, audio/visual, industry-leading assessments.
  • A before-and-after increase in the Eq-i emotional intelligence scores in graduating students are more than four times greater than those of other leading programs.

“The Buccino Leadership Institute at Seton Hall is designed to bring undergraduate students an educational experience second to none,” said Interim Executive Director Michael Reuter. “This latest accolade is one more proof of the extraordinary value the Institute is delivering. And the best is yet to come!”

For more information on the Buccino Leadership Institute, visit www.shu.edu/leadership.

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