Minor in Leadership & Public Service

Attention: The minor in L&PS will be revamped with new requirements starting in Fall 2025. If you are pursuing the minor with the requirements below, declare it as soon as possible. Contact your advisor for more info.
In Fall of 2025, the Minor in Leadership & Service will collaborate with the Novak Leadership Institute and include a required Novak course, supplemental leadership electives, and service learning designated courses in and outside of your major.

If you are a freshman/sophomore, please consider checking back in Spring 2025. If you are currently a junior/senior, pursue the minor requirements below and declare immediately.

Community Engaged Learning (once Service Learning) offers a Minor in Leadership and Public Service, available to any undergraduate student regardless of their major. The minor combines an academic component of courses in

  • leadership
  • public policy
  • ethics
  • social issues with a strong focus on service learning
  • community service and public service internships

Each minor is unique and tailored to fit the interests and learning goals of individual students.

Students who complete the minor receive a blue and white tassel for graduation! Contact our office to pick up your tassel before graduation

Program Goals

  • To provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary leadership minor for undergraduates focusing on developing leadership in public and community service
  • To include, as an integral part of leadership education, a strong emphasis on service learning and public service internships to complement academic course work
  • To educate future leaders for our community, state and nation
  • To create a direct and positive impact on Missouri communities through undergraduate community and government service
  • To encourage a lifetime of citizenship and community service among undergraduates, so that MU education becomes an investment in our social and political future

Minor Requirements

A minimum of 15 hours are required to complete the Minor in Leadership and Public Service.

Community-Engaged Field Experience: Public Service and Non-Profit Internships, Global Service, Service Learning Courses: The MU Community Engagement Project

9 Credit Hours

These courses are designed to promote a lifetime commitment to public service and teach essential leadership skills through experience.

SRV_LRN and English 2000 will not be offered any more and will be replaced by other Service Learning courses.

There are government internships and non-profit internships as well as study abroad options to fulfill this requirement. Students have the opportunity to study abroad in Costa Rica, Ghana, Ireland, Peru, Thailand, Vietnam, and South Korea.

  • As you look into options for this section, please explore our Civic Leaders Internship Program page and our Global Service page.
Recommended Courses

6 Credit Hours

The MU Office of Service Learning has partnered with departments on campus to include classes that count toward the minor. Often times, classes are ones already required or suggested for general education requirements. Courses cannot be in the student’s major. There are course options from 19 departments to make it easy to find classes that will fit within the minor requirements.

  • Please reference the list of recommended courses on this page.
  • If you have taken a course that meets the spirit of the minor but is not listed, please scroll down to the “declaring exceptions” section.

Running a Minor Degree Audit

  • Go to this link
  • You will see your programs
  • Select a different program
  • Choose A&S for academic unit
  • Undergraduate Minor
  • Scroll down to L’s for Leadership and Public Service Minor
  • Choose the year you started at Mizzou or the earliest year available
  • If you find that your audit is not picking up a course that should be counting, please email servicelearning@missouri.edu to enter an exception into the system

Declaring your Minor in Leadership and Public Service

Once you have completed 6 hours towards the Minor in Leadership and Public Service, you are eligible to declare your minor and add it to your graduation stack. Please follow the steps below.

  • Visit the Minor Declaration form >
  • Log in
  • You will see your current programs
  • Click on the Minor, add a minor
  • Choose A&S for the program
  • Scroll down to the L’s to find Leadership and Public Service Minor
  • Submit
  • At that point, you will get a confirmation both on the screen and through email

Declaring Exceptions

You can submit a minor exception form for both the recommended course section and the field experience section.

  • If you feel that you have taken a course that should be considered for the recommended course section, please click on the “Declaring Exceptions” link below.
  • Also, please declare an exception if you participate in one of the LPS minor programs to meet your field experience section, but decide to credit outside our office. For example, if you secure a CLIP Non-profit internship but credit through Sociology, you will need to declare an exception.
  • Once you submit the form, our office will evaluate it and make the appropriate adjustments to your LPS minor audit. You will receive an email confirming the change.
  • Complete the Declaring Exceptions form >

Connect

To learn more about the Minor and/or set up an appointment, please email cel@missouri.edu.