February 20, 2018
Quinita Thomas
At UCCS, leadership is a concept that extends far beyond a group project.
“You should be living leadership; it’s not just a thing you learn in the classroom,” says Sabrina Weinholtz, director of Student Clubs, Organizations and Leadership.
Wienholtz oversees the Live Leadership program. Founded in 2012, the program offers both scholarship opportunities and leadership development to incoming freshmen.
Live Leadership, which stands for Launching Integrity, Values and Excellence, is coordinated through the Department of Student Life and Leadership. Students interest in applying must do so before they are admitted to UCCS.
Four groups of the current Live leaders will design and organize a service project for the entire program. By Feb. 21, students must inform Weinholtz of their service project.
“Each group can do their projects either on or off campus, and they should be involving other UCCS students. The goal is to perform this service, that benefits people other than themselves, between now and spring break,” she says.
The application, opened to incoming freshman in the class of 2022, closed Feb. 1. Students who are selected to be a part of the program receive a $1,000 scholarship over the course of four years.
“We’re going to be making selections over the next month or so,” Wienholtz says.
“If they are selected for the Live Leadership Scholarship, then they are part of this cohort of 20 incoming freshmen students. They get to participate in a variety of different events and activities throughout the course of their freshman year.”
This will be the fifth year the Live Leadership program selects their cohort of students, according to Wienholtz. She believes that this program is developed to help get incoming students active and involved in campus activates.
“We were hoping we’d get these folks to be able to be in student government, be club leaders and student employees; just give them the skills that they needed to be successful in leadership positions on campus,” she says.
Wienholtz explained that incoming freshmen of all majors can apply for this program.
“When most people apply they don’t know what major they are yet, because they’re still in high school,” says Wienholtz. “We get a lot of different majors, because folks don’t know what they want to do yet. They just know that they want to make a difference on campus.”
Wienholtz highly recommends that incoming freshmen apply for this program since it will help them build their leadership skills and get them more involved in the UCCS community.
“Students should join Live Leadership because it is a fantastic opportunity to get to know other like-minded students who want to be leaders and want to get things done; to practice alongside them, and build that network of people who can help support you, while you’re getting awesome things done at UCCS,” she says.
For more information on Live Leadership, visit sll.uccs.edu/org/liveleadership.