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In 2014, homicide and suicide were the second and third, respectively, largest killers of youth. Violence among youth appears to be increasing and aggression is prevalent in and out of school settings. This paper first summarizes what we think and we know about adolescent brain development from neuroscience and psychology. Next, we discuss the neural correlates of violence contextualizing information within adolescent brain development. Finally, we explore how mindfulness-based and compassion cultivation curriculum, which includes empathy, may positively influence the dysregulation of some of the known neural correlates of violence. The paper concludes with some recommendations for educators and policy-makers to consider in the development of curriculum that seeks to prevent violence and aggression among youth.

Purpose-Similar to religion, spirituality is considered a private affair along with issues of faith, hope, and love (Palmer, 1998). American public education has been reluctant to address such issues due to our cultural norm of "separation of church and state" (Love and Talbot, 2000, p. 1) yet the American Council for Education calls upon higher education to provide students ways to explore their personal values, world beliefs, and spirituality (Chickering et al., 2006; Dalton and Crosby, 2006). As such, the purpose of this paper is to explore student leaders' perspectives on how leadership development activities influenced their sense of spirituality. Design/methodology/approach-A qualitative case study design was used to explore responses from ten student leaders who completed a leadership development program in the Spring 2015 at a public four-year institution. As part of the leadership development program, students were paired a peer mentor while they completed leadership workshops, a reflection paper, self-assessment, and an ongoing community service project painting murals with individuals who have intellectual disabilities. Participants were from various majors and religious backgrounds and had completed the leadership development program two months prior to their participation in this study. Findings-Findings revealed that leadership workshops, self-assessment, reflections, peer-to-peer mentorship, and an ongoing shared community service project, influenced students' perspectives of spirituality and their leadership identity. Student leaders both did and did not differentiate the developmental process of leadership from the spiritual development process, defining both as cognitive and emotional development deeply grounded in self-awareness. Study participants shared that through self-reflection, developing their inter and intra personal skills through conducting service, shaped their understanding of their spiritual identity and developed their sense of self. Research limitations/implications-Study results are not generalizable but provide insight into the experiences and perceptions of student leaders on two hard-to-define topics: spirituality and leadership. The order of the interview questions may have influenced the thought process leading up to student's responses connecting spirituality and leadership concepts. Another limitation is that the leadership activities were designed and coordinated by the lead investigator. Hence, there may be findings that were influenced by the investigators' personal beliefs about leadership. Study participants may have also felt more comfortable discussing their beliefs about spirituality because of their familiarity with the lead investigator.

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Postsecondary education is expected to develop college graduates who are prepared to solve global issues using values' judgment (Shahid, 2015; Welsh, 2014). As such, we explored whether spiritual development cultivates the skills that employers demand through the theory of self-authorship (Pawar, 2014; Wolde, Groenendall, Helsloot, & Welsh, 2014). The findings of our synthesis of literature suggest a model where educators may integrate spiritual development activities into their co-curricular leadership development programs. Through meaningful learning experiences, students can gain insight into their values and understand their role in solving global problems (National Association of Colleges and Employers,