Orem, Utah – October 6th, 2026
UVU is the host of about a dozen journal publications, each ranging in topics they publish. One of these many journals is the Journal of Student Leadership.
Benjamin Johnson and Sandi Bennett, the faculty advisors for the Journal have been working with the journal for ten years. Johnson describes the journal as “an innovative hybrid journal (published physically and online), that includes student level work, faculty level work, professional level work, and work from professional artists.” The Journal relies on a double-blind peer review format, reviewed by both journal staff and academic professionals.
The Journal was founded ten years ago when Kameron R. González, a student, reached out to Johnson: “I [González] initiated conversations with Dr. Johnson that led to the idea to create an academic journal that addresses leadership concepts. Although UVU already had several journals in operation at the time, it did not have a journal specifically designed to examine literature and theory about leadership. As the conversation developed through the subsequent academic year, Dr. Johnson and I discovered very few journals that focused on student leadership. With this discovery, we decided to move forward with producing a new publication.” Bennett was later recruited down the line. “It was at a period of time when I was saying yes to a lot of things in my career.” She laughed. Since that point, The Journal of Student Leadership has published seventeen journals, three of which being special issues about women and public health leaders. The journal has received submissions from a diverse amount of people; Johnson notes that many of these submissions may not even come from UVU students.
“We’ve had majors in Aviation Science, Digital Media and Design, English majors, Nursing, Public Health– the number of majors are endless. They all participated in the journal as artists and authors, and as staff members. We’re helping move the conversation on leadership by co-collaborating in these capacities with our authors, artists, and staff members. We have this dual focus on attracting the best work from students, from faculty and professionals, and ideally combining and having them work together to connect that work. Some of our best submissions are ones that are co-authored by faculty and students, for example.”
True to its name, the Journal of Student Leadership heavily relies on its student staff for leadership throughout its publishing process. “[Every student] helps with PR and marketing, everyone helps with editing, and everyone helps when it comes down to typesetting,” Bennett remarks. “A lot of times our students will specialize in one thing– like maybe someone is majoring in marketing and they’ve got some great ideas on how to contribute with that. We let our student staff draw on one another’s expertise, or do some research. It’s really such a growth and learning experience for the student staff.” On top of gaining real world experience with the journal, the students also are provided a safe space to learn and grow.
“Very rarely do you have a situation where you get to know the student staff so well and get to see them grow over the course of the semester. You see them learn how to do things– they start out hating the design software, and by the end they’re like, ‘oh my gosh, I love this so much.’ That doesn’t happen to everyone, but it’s super exciting when it does. It’s really rewarding to see that and to be part of it.” All of these students have used skills from the journal to further their careers with many having gone on to earn graduate degrees and other professional degrees.
“We had a student who did PR with us working back in the Midwest with his family,” Johnson remarked. “He reached out to us last year and said he learned more with the journal than he did his entire college degree. He learned all these practical skills that helped him in his profession” One thing is clear: The Journal of Student Leadership really focuses on including student leadership in every aspect of their process– not just their content.
“The Journal talks about all different aspects of leadership, and that is where the opportunity for the students to decide the conversation on leadership,” says Johnson, “So we have our reviewers decide that. I think that’s powerful and impactful. It’s also motivating for the readers or viewers of the artwork, because we have works that people can connect with today.”
The Journal of Student Leadership is keeping submissions for art open until October 26th. Priority submissions for the Spring publication will be due on December 12th.
For more information or to submit, go here: https://www.uvu.edu/slss/jsl/index.html
