Benedictine Leadership Studies was recently named the best program in the country for Mission Integration by the Association for Student Affairs at Catholic Colleges and Universities (ASACCU).
The Rule of St. Benedict serves as the cornerstone leadership model for the program, offering a deeper understanding of leadership in your personal and professional life and in service to local, national and global communities. Benedictine Leadership Studies is a virtue-based, ethical structure for the study of leadership. The program is grounded in the Benedictine Wisdom Tradition, which has been developing since The Rule of St. Benedict was published 1,500 years ago. Its 10 core principles, or hallmarks, are derived from The Rule and form the core of BLS.
The Benedictine Leadership Studies (BLS) program will allow you to analyze who you are as an individual called to serve and promote the common good of your community, and to develop a meaningful understanding of God’s purpose for your life, using the teachings of the Catholic Church and Benedictine spirituality as guides.
The 10 Hallmarks shape the character of the BLS program. As a BLS fellow, you will be educated in the virtues associated with the Hallmarks, and encouraged to develop them in ways appropriate to your future profession and vocation. Love of God and neighbor as self, purposeful reflection, commitment to one's obligations, openness to truth, steady work habits, humble regard for others, and a respect for creation are all attributes encouraged by the program. Recognizing that all leadership takes place in the context of communities, whether they be civic, natural or supernatural, the BLS program seeks to cultivate the complete human person: body, soul and spirit.
For more information, please contact the BLS Director, Michael Krom, Ph.D. at
To learn more about Benedictine Leadership Studies, follow us on Facebook: @StvincentBLS
BLS program content includes:
In order to receive a Benedictine Leadership Studies certificate, you will take one BLS course each semester of your four years at Saint Vincent College (24 BLS credits). Examples include:
In addition to these required courses, BLS Certificate students are required to take 15 elective credits from among Honors Community Course offerings. Finally, a 1-credit internship is taken, preferably in the junior year. Many of your BLS courses will also count toward fulfillment of the college's core curriculum.
After academic course work and other components of the BLS program are satisfactorily completed, a Benedictine Leadership Studies certificate will be awarded, upon completion of an academic degree at Saint Vincent College.
BLS Portfolio – You will maintain an online portfolio throughout your four years as a BLS fellow. The portfolio will contain examples of your work, reflection on the skills you have gained and thoughts on how you are growing in understanding and implementing the hallmarks in your life. In addition to serving as an assessment tool for BLS faculty, this portfolio may be shared with family, friends and prospective employers.
Retreat Workshops – Each semester you will join with the other fellows in your cohort in a retreat workshop based on the Benedictine Hallmarks. In addition to the required reading and participation in discussion, you will write a brief reflection on what you learned about the specified hallmark(s) and include this in your portfolio. The topics build upon one another, starting with vocational discernment, then to implementing the hallmarks in your professional life, and finally to classical rhetoric as the means by which you communicate the beauty of the hallmarks to the outside world.
Experiential Learning – To pursue the BLS Certificate you must participate in experiential learning activities each semester of your four years, and complete a reflection on what hallmark(s) you put into practice, to be included in your portfolio. Examples of experiential learning activities are a team-building ropes course, career planning activities and service learning projects. In addition, you will be required to complete a 0-1 credit internship during your junior year.
Self-Leadership Exercises – You will be asked throughout your four years to reflect on how you are integrating the 10 hallmarks into your self-understanding and daily life. It is central to the program that you reflect on how your future profession and vocation will be shaped by your commitment to being a Benedictine leader. To facilitate this process, you will participate each semester in reflective exercises. Working with a faculty, staff or Benedictine mentor, you will write a personal narrative based on these reflective exercises each academic year.
Rome Capstone Seminar – In the spring semester of your senior year, (with the exceptions previously noted), you will enroll in BLS 300: Rome Capstone Seminar. The core component of the course is a spring break trip to Rome which will contain academic content relating to specific examples of leaders directly related to the academic and Benedictine heritage material covered during the week. A member of the Saint Vincent College faculty and a Benedictine monk will coordinate and co-teach the material presented in the course. The academic essay that you will write after the trip, reflecting on the models of leadership presented by the leaders of Roman history studied throughout the week, will be included in your portfolio.
The fall 2022 application is now closed.
Please note: Students must apply for admission to Saint Vincent College and be accepted prior to applying for an Honors Community program.
Admission to BLS is competitive. Interested students apply for acceptance in the winter before their freshman year, and only 20 students are selected each year. Selection criteria include items such as GPA, leadership activities, community service, student essays, a video describing why you want to be in the program and professional recommendations.
For more information, contact Dr. Michael Krom, professor of philosophy and director of Benedictine Leadership Studies, at michael.krom@stvincent.edu or 724-805-2844.