GOLD Certificates

The Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development (GOLD) program offers unique workshops that help students develop the personal skills and knowledge necessary for future success in both life and career. GOLD offers nine certificates of completion.

All students who earn a GOLD Leadership Certificate will receive an official digital badge (via Credly©) issued by SUNY Geneseo.

GOLD logo

The process to earn a GOLD certificate is as follows:

  • Attend eight one-hour workshops (four of which are required, the other four are electives)
  • Submit eight corresponding journal entries after the workshops

You can take workshops in any order or at any time that fits your schedule. You may also complete as many workshops as time permits, but, you will only be awarded a certificate when you have attended eight workshops and submitted eight journal reflections. 

Each spring, students who have completed certificates will receive signed certificates at the Annual Leadership Awards and Recognition Ceremony. There are no deadlines for submitting journals, but if you would like to receive a printed certificate and have your name in the Awards and Recognition Ceremony, all journals needed to complete a certificate must be submitted by a specific deadline that will be shared closer to the ceremony date.

GOLD Certificates Offered

Advice for Participants

The best strategy for going through GOLD at your own pace is to use free time during the afternoons when most GOLD workshops are offered. The time slots are normally Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 3:00-5:00 PM. Workshops do occur at other times so check the daily schedule for workshops and events that are offered for GOLD certificate credit.

Six of eight leadership certificates have a similar format and similar requirements: each certificate has a combination of four required workshops and four elective workshops, and the related journal entries that are submitted online. The Personal Exploration in Leadership Certificate only requires two workshops plus twelve optional workshops selected from the entire GOLD program. See Personal Exploration in Leadership Certificate for details. 

You may complete any certificate at any time, so feel free to take whatever workshops fit into your schedule. However, in terms of the Core Leadership Certificates, you will not be awarded them out of order, even if you complete a certificate. For example, if you were to complete the workshops needed to earn a Practicing Leadership (Silver) Certificate, you will not be awarded Practicing Leadership (Silver) Certificate until you complete the Leadership Skills (Bronze) certificate first. This has to do with the developmental nature of the Core Leadership Certificates. In this way, the completion of the Personal Leadership Model (Gold) certificate is a capstone for the GOLD development process.

In addition to the regular procedure of submitting a journal entry after each workshop that you attend, for the Gold Certificate, it is required that you complete and submit a Personal Leadership Model.