Our year-long research project  was designed to allow students to explore how the theories and concepts we were learning about in class applied in the world. They were asked to select a leader they wanted to interview 3 times over the year. These interviews coincided with each module of our class and the material we were covering during that period. The goal was to learn more about the nuances and challenges of leadership concepts by listening to how our respondents talk about their experiences. 

At the end of the year, we transcribed all of the interviews, coded, and analyzed the data to identify common themes. We reported our results to the Department of Communication National Advisory Council in a presentation in March and then each student chose one aspect of the data to focus on for their final projects. The goal was to learn to translate academic findings into something the public could easily understand and engage like a LinkedIn article, a series of podcast episodes, or a TedTalk.