The NSLS is the nation’s largest accredited co-curricular leadership development program, with over 2 million members from over 800 colleges across the country. 

We know you’re busy. So we designed an accredited co-curricular leadership development program that takes the heavy lifting off of you, allows you to see real success, and greatly impacts your students. 

The NSLS is by your side at every step, from launching your chapter to providing different modality options that fit anyone’s bandwidth. We also:

• Manage engagement and recruitment processes

• Provide annually updated leadership curriculum

• Facilitate annual program assessments

• Book six world-renowned broadcast speakers

• Provide promotion and marketing kits

• Support students with a dedicated success team

• Assist with chapter leader recruitment

• Offer multiple modalities to meet your unique needs

With any form of programming, administrators need to weigh value against cost. 

Let’s get right to it: starting and maintaining an NSLS chapter only requires a bit of your time—typically 10-20 hours per semester, based on how involved you’d like to be. But here’s what you get from us to help you out:

• First Year Free

  We’ve made starting a chapter as easy as possible, including waiving the fee for the first year so you don’t have to worry about listing the NSLS on your budget.

• Financially Self-Sustainable

  We don’t stop supporting chapters after the first year, either. Chapters are designed to be self-funding, and our dedicated Chapter Success team helps ensure everything runs smoothly.

• Impact Student Retention

  Our programming is community-driven, and chapters routinely come back to share that they’ve seen an increase in retention rates. Delgado Community College enjoyed an 81 percent semester-to-semester retention rate for students that earned their NSLS induction, which was nearly 20 percent higher than their institutional retention rate. Merrimack University shared that they were able to retain students who joined the NSLS at a rate of 95 percent.

• Guaranteed Student Engagement

  Through our proven invitation process and desirable programming, the NSLS can guarantee that students will engage in your chapter.

• Engage At-Risk Students

  With the NSLS, we allow you to choose the student population you want to invite. Examples of successful criteria could be Sophomores and Juniors with a 3.0+ GPA plus all graduate students or students with 6-36 credit hours and a 2.75+ GPA plus dual enrolled & workforce development students. It's also great to include some special populations such as underrepresented students, military and veteran-aligned, and first-generation students.  

• Virtual or In-Person

  Students can experience our transformative programming on campus or in the comfort of their own homes, providing a great way to connect students even in hybrid environments.

• Fully Asynchronous Programming Option

  Designed for the administrator who needs to provide quality leadership programming but has little to no bandwidth, our fully asynchronous program requires the least resources but doesn’t compromise quality. Our programming is available in a self-guided format. This is also an ideal option for institutions that are fully online, serve professional students, or have a high number of students who prefer online offerings.

• All Inclusive Chapter Portal

  No need for a separate bank account or engagement tracking platform. We have everything covered with our NSLS Chapter Leader Dashboard.

To explain the ROI of the NSLS succinctly and make your decision-making process easier, we put together a helpful infographic. You can also download a copy here.

We know that budgets are important and often tight. Here’s the good news: NSLS chapters typically fund themselves after the first year! And we offer a waiver program that covers the cost of the first year. The first-year waivers are awarded in order of the applications received and are available to all institutions.
 
Thanks to our best-practices-based discount, the NSLS Pillar system, your chapter can earn discounts on the renewal fee. These discounts are highly achievable, and most of our chapters find that they are able to fully fund the program this way. 

Additionally, your chapter can earn money that goes directly into your chapter’s account, which chapter leadership can pull from to host events on campus, pay for new member entry fees, and much more. 

For even more on this, check out the ROI section above! We’d also love to hear about your unique situation. 

The NSLS is the only accredited co-curricular leadership development program in the nation. NSLS programming is guided by CAS standards, and the NSLS is a fully accredited post-secondary academic institution. We take education seriously. Our mission is to build leaders who make a better world, and our courses are one of the many tools we use to do so. 

Choose your criteria: Examples of successful criteria could be Sophomores and Juniors with a 3.0+ GPA plus all graduate students or students with 6-36 credit hours and a 2.75+ GPA plus dual enrolled & workforce development students. It's also great to include some special populations such as underrepresented students, military and veteran-aligned, and first-generation students.

Additionally, students must complete the program to earn their induction, nationally recognized certification, potential college credits, and digital badges. This is a not pay-your-money-and-you’re-in type of program. Students will be given the tools to sharpen their leadership skills and the opportunity to practice those skills within our program and NSLS community.

One of the most common reasons for launching an NSLS chapter is to improve student engagement and retention. And the proof is in: check out these three case studies for more information. Also, we’d love to discuss our success with many other schools in more detail. 

• Delgado Community College enjoyed an 81 percent semester-to-semester retention rate utilizing the NSLS.

• St. Petersburg College started an NSLS chapter and saw an increase in retention rates by over 37 percent.

• William Paterson University went from a nearly inactive chapter to inducting more than 100 new members in only one semester.

For students, one of the most popular and inspiring aspects of our program is our Speaker Broadcast Series. 

Every semester, we bring world-renowned speakers to our members, with leaders such as Adam Grant, Lindsey Vonn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Deion Sanders, Matthew McConaughey, Dr. Bernice King, Daymond John, Robin Roberts, and more. Check out a full list of speakers here.

One of the best parts of our program is that it can help you meet your goals and overcome challenges while also making a massive impact in your students’ lives. 

• A Tool to Connect

  The NSLS is a proven retention and engagement tool that can be customized to meet your unique needs. See our case study section above for full details about how our program has boosted engagement at schools.

• A Platform for Community

  Besides providing you with a guaranteed way to engage students, our programming also builds a strong local leadership community on your campus. The NSLS helps you empower students to host and run events, build soft skills required for the job market, and become positive forces of good and change.

• A Place to Learn Leadership Skills

  The best part is that this all happens while also helping students develop the key skills needed to succeed long after their college careers.