The Gordon Engineering Leadership programs at Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently cohosted a conference with representatives from similar programs at eight institutions across North America to share best practices and discover new, innovative ways to take the student experience to the next level.

Northeastern’s graduate program in engineering leadership aims to build a future corps of professionals who are prepared to take leadership roles in their organizations. Through an immersive learning experience, the program creates engineering leaders who distinguish themselves with their abilities, character, self-esteem, ambition and technical education.

Simon Pitts, who directs the initiative at Northeastern, said the program has blossomed in the first four years, and helped students achieve a high level of personal growth.

“As a group of 10 schools at this conference, we feel this is a very new and vital domain to build nationally,” Pitts said. “The advantage we have here at Northeastern, with 100 years of experiential learning and co-op, is that we’re already very tightly aligned with the needs of industry. So we can really help lead the other schools that are just starting in this field.”

Hear more from the Gordon student leaders in the video below: