SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Buccino Leadership Institute at Seton Hall University was named this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Program Award by the Association of Leadership Educators. The announcement was made at the association’s annual conference in Kansas City in June.
Founded in 1990, ALE comprises top leadership development educators from around the country and defines itself as “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 2021 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 No. 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,” SHU President Joseph E. Nyre said.
Seton Hall University provost Katia Passerini agreed, saying, “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 with 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, universitywide, noncredit-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 interdisciplinary teams. 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 universitywide 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, including:
- The institute is interdisciplinary, serving 265 students from 34 different majors.
- More than 30 percent of the university’s esteemed Servant Leader Scholars are Buccino leadership students, even though they make up around 3 percent of the student population.
- Almost 26 percent of all campus leadership positions are held by Buccino leaders.
“The Buccino Leadership Institute at Seton Hall is designed to bring undergraduate students an educational experience second to none,” interim Executive Director Michael Reuter said. “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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