Contact: Kenneth Billings
Photo by: Megan Bean
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State freshman leadership program is beginning its second year with a nearly 50 percent increase in enrollment.
Day One has grown from 220 students in its inaugural year to 300 this fall. Part of the Appalachian Leadership Honors Program, it is led by a team of the university's John Grisham Master Teachers headed by director Allison Pearson, a management professor.
ALHP director Cade Smith said the first-year success led to a ramping up of the application and selection processes. The result: "We have an outstanding class of 300 chosen from more than 500 applicants."
Currently representing more than 40 academic majors, students will spend the semester learning leadership theories through both class time and a community project.
Housed together in Cresswell Residence Hall, they work in pods of 25, with members of each pod enrolled together in at least one core class. Pods are sub-divided into four "Action Teams," with specially trained mentors serving as resource advocates and coordinators for service projects that extend classroom learning.
"Students entering college rarely fail because of a shortage of time, but a shortage of purpose," Smith observed. "Being engaged in meaningful activities is critical in making the transition from a high school to a college environment, where students often are responsible for themselves for the first time."
Also new this year is a guide book that gives participants a "ladder to success" through weekly benchmarks and other markers to stay on track through the semester.
After completing Day One, graduates may seek an academic minor in leadership or apply for one of the 30 slots as an Appalachian Leadership Honors Program Fellow.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.