Author(s)

Alana Dillette, Lori Sipe

L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, San Diego, CA, USA.

This article examines experiential learning within the context of leader development in a hospitality and tourism management program. First, we present findings about high impact experiences from student blogs (n = 60) and discuss key themes within the context of Kolb’s four phases of experiential learning. This is followed by a discussion about how these findings influence the systematic redesign of our core leadership curriculum. Findings suggest strong consideration be given to providing contexts for authentic practice, encouraging exploration and personalization, mentoring both ways, and the value of integrated and well-timed facilitation. A four-year framework is presented detailing specific high impact experiences and outcomes aligned with a progression of leader development for undergraduates.

Experiential Learning, Leadership Development, Mentoring, Personalization, Framework

Dillette, A. and Sipe, L. (2018) A Systematic Framework of Experiential Learning: Challenging Educators to Make College more than an Aggregation of Credits. Creative Education, 9, 1426-1443. doi: 10.4236/ce.2018.99106.