The Role of Leaders in Ensuring Student Thriving Institutions of higher education foster tomorrow's generation of leaders, innovators, and creative thinkers. Attending to students' well-being, which encompasses all aspects of positive being and functioning, is not a responsibility that institutions merely choose to take on, but rather is "the fundamental purpose of higher education" (Harward, 2016, p. 6). Responding to this call requires distinct action on multiple levels within higher education institutions to ensure the social, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellness of students. Such actions call out to leaders to act and advocate for student thriving. In this chapter, we offer leaders in higher education a toolkit to take 'inventory' of their learners' thriving as a positive approach to leadership, well-being, and flourishing. Through a positive psychology lens, we begin by exploring the context of higher education and the drawbacks of a productivity-based evaluation of graduate and professional student achievement, arguing for a re-examination of what a successful graduate or professional program prioritizes. We then propose an inventory-based approach making a case for a more holistic consideration of the phenomenon of student well-being that supports students in their ability to thrive. Grounded in research, we present a set of inventory questions developed from the thematic and quantizing analysis of 2447 graduate and professional student responses analyzed using a constructivist

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which graduate students within two similar sized programs in education and health studies report self-determination and thriving in their graduate program. This study utilized a two-phase sequential explanatory mixed-methods methodology combining fall and spring questionnaire collection (n= 89, 68) followed by interviews (n= 24, 16). Graduate students reported differences in their self-determination and thriving by gender, year of program, as well as their department indicating that graduate students have divergent experiences as opposed to one common experience of graduate school. The results highlight specific obstacles such as funding, inter-student competition, and feeling disconnected from their faculty as well as methods to maximize supports like community and strong personal relationships. Word Count: 1980 Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which graduate students within two similar sized programs (at the Faculty of Education and the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies [SKHS]) report self-determination and thriving in their graduate program. The study also aims to understand the events and experiences that support and/or hinder students' self-determination and thriving. Three questions guide this study: