Mehlman Leadership and Performance Institute

Putting Leadership into Practice

Great leadership stems from the joy of mastering a challenge and guiding your team toward shared success. At the Mehlman Institute, we prepare Diplomats for this journey by instilling three essential qualities for lifelong impact: 

• • Growth Mindset: The drive to view every challenge as an opportunity to learn.
    
    
  • Grit: The passion and perseverance to achieve meaningful, long-term goals.
    
    
  • Adaptive Leadership: The agility to navigate change and guide teams through ambiguity.

By blending coursework, hands-on learning, mentorship, and direct connections with expert leaders, you will sharpen these traits through practical experience across our core initiatives:

• • F&M Leadership Fellows: Offers selected students leadership opportunities across four purpose-driven tracks – public service, entrepreneurship, creative writing, and sustainability – and a four-year, $15,000 annual merit scholarship
    
    
  • Friday Leadership Residency: Unites all F&M Leadership Fellows for weekly fall gatherings focused on shared skill-building and community
    
    
  • Responsible AI Leadership Fellowship: Selects F&M juniors for a year-long fellowship that combines workshops with a funded summer internship or employment centered on leading the way with the responsible use of artificial intelligence
    
    
  • Speaker Series: Invites distinguished leaders for conversations with the campus community about the realities of modern leadership and building healthy, high-performing careers
    
    
  • Spring Leadership Course: Pairs growth-mindset and grit with a team project addressing real-world challenges in Lancaster 
    
    
  • Athletics Partnership: Collaborates with F&M coaches and teams to elevate student-athlete leadership and performance
    
    
  • Lancaster Social Venture Initiative: Lays early groundwork to launch a social venture fund with Lancaster-based organizations 
    
    
  • A Campus-Wide Ecosystem: Fosters collaborations with the Ware Institute for Civic Engagement, F&M Athletics, and the Venture and Impact Studio for the campus and broader Lancaster community to serve as a living laboratory for leadership