Group 7 Leadership Project
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Group 7 Leadership Project
Sarah Etheart
Robert Nolan
Viviana Valencia
MAN4120-2183-2466
Miami Dade College
April, 2018
Instructor: Dr. Richard Sarabia
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Group 7 Leadership Project
The text book defines leadership as a process which is used to guide and sculpt behaviors
and outputs of others, in order to complete or achieve an end result. (Northouse, 2016) We have
chosen to do our term paper on Dr. Rahnuma Ahsan. Dr. Ahsan’s “passion and pride” is in
leading classrooms and students as a college professor. Dr. Ahsan’s leadership style uses both,
supportive behaviors and directive behaviors to influence her surroundings. Remaining true to
herself and her code of ethics, the professor is conscious that at different stages and
developmental levels, situations are unique and the students in these situations each yield their
own course work. Leadership is a group process, which requires an understanding of how
students absorb and process information. Dr. Ahsan enjoys working with group members during
coursework and asking questions to get perspective on what makes these relationships tick, all
the while hoping to inspire the knowledge seeking students.
It wasn’t Dr. Ahsan’s plan to go into academia, it all happened by accident. Dr. Ahsan
was on track to obtain her bachelors in accounting and go on to obtain the Certified Public
Accounting (CPA) certification. It was during an internship at Grameen Bank, a microfinance
and community development bank in Bangladesh, that she saw how finance principles can be
applied and used in real world applications. This caused her to change directions and focus on
finance for her master’s and Ph.D. degrees.
Academia came calling as she was studying for her Ph.D. Dr. Ahsan filled in a couple of
classes for her mentor when he was sick and the teaching bug bit. The students suggested she go
into teaching as they saw she had real talent for it. She liked the interaction with the students and
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saw it as an opportunity to continue gaining knowledge from her students as she was teaching
them.
Prior to joining Miami Dade College, Dr. Ahsan worked at City University of New York
(York College), Old Dominion University. She has also worked at Women’s World Banking
and Grameen Trust. Being a “fierce supporter of social entrepreneurship” sets her apart from
other professors at Miami Dade College. Among the many courses she teaches, the Capstone
course is her favorite. Capstone is a course that helps students in their last semester put into
practice all of the knowledge they have acquired in their coursework. She distinguishes her
course by making it a requirement that the company the students are creating be a socially
conscious business, be it benefitting a social cause or an environmental cause. Dr. Ahsan takes
pride in opening her students’ eyes to making an impact through social work. She believes this
