Ellen Labbé

Several years into her career in the tech industry, project manager and producer Ellen Labbé (Certificate in Leadership and Communication ’24) was ready to advance her managerial skills through part-time study. “I noticed that the leaders I admired in my professional experience had these certain traits and qualities that I wanted to exemplify in my own career,” she shares. “It inspired me to develop my leadership skills further.” Her search for the right educational opportunity brought her to the Penn LPS Online Certificate Leadership and Communication (LEAD), where she discovered that we each have our own traits that we can leverage to become strong leaders.

“I was really excited about the LEAD Certificate because I thought it would be a great tool, applicable to any industry,” Ellen begins. “The Penn brand caught my eye; Being an online program from an Ivy League institution was definitely valuable for me,” she says, noting that she could study at a top institution while continuing to work full time in Los Angeles. When she dug into the certificate curriculum—which develops professional skills from communications strategies to critical thinking to statistics and data analytics—she found it appealed to her long-term career interests.

“I knew it was quite a commitment,” she says of her fall 2023 program start, “but I found that taking one or two courses per semester was very manageable, and the online format made it really accessible.”

“The certificate taught me that there are multiple ways to lead and different ways to communicate effectively with those you manage or work with.”

A stand-out course, which fulfilled the 5-course certificate’s analytical requirement, was Introduction to Data Analytics. The class teaches students how to leverage data for decision-making and problem-solving, using the programming language R. “I thought that it was really important coursework because it could be applied to so many different industries and it was something new that I was learning,” she says.

The four required LEAD courses were reading- and writing-intensive, she recalls, each offering valuable takeaways for her professional development. “I think it was really good practice, digesting course material and translating it into a written essay, which is something that I had not done since I was an undergrad.” Additionally, assigned articles and case studies offered different examples of leadership styles and traits to reflect on and discuss. “The certificate taught me that there are multiple ways to lead and different ways to communicate effectively with those you manage or work with.”

Ellen found the small class sizes in the program allowed her to get to know her classmates through discussion board posts and reading each other’s essays. “Everyone has such vastly different backgrounds, and has different opinions, and writes on different topics. So, it was refreshing to see that and get all these perspectives as we continued along in the courses,” she says.

The instructors were also accessible and easy to engage with. “That was something I was nervous about, being an online program,” she shares, “but I communicated with my professors and TAs quite a bit, so I was able to develop relationships with them.” She recommends attending office hours, live course sessions, and reaching out via email to fully connect.

“The certificate has taught me a lot about not just my own leadership style, but also how to influence my team in a positive way and how to always think about refining my leadership and communication skills.”

Ellen completed the LEAD Certificate in fall 2024. Along the way, she put lessons from her classes into action at work. “As program manager, I oversee a lot of work at once, and the LEAD Certificate taught me how to communicate needs better and really just be the best that I could be for my team so that they felt unblocked and could do the best work possible,” she says. “The certificate has taught me a lot about not just my own leadership style, but also how to influence my team in a positive way and how to always think about refining my leadership and communication skills.”

LEAD has also served as a steppingstone for her next professional development goal: pursuing a master’s degree. “I’m leaning toward an MBA,” she shares. “This certificate has proven to be more valuable than I anticipated,” she adds. “It was such a great learning experience for me, and I really think that it’s given me an advantage in a really competitive job market and environment.”