<p>LEAD Scholars is a two-year program that gives you (or your kid) a lot of really valuable opportunities. If you enjoy getting involved, making friends, doing things that will make a huge impact on the community (e.g. service), or getting training to become a better leader, applying to LEAD Scholars is a wonderful decision.</p>
<p>LEAD Scholars do enjoy a lot of benefits. There is a room in the Student Union where LEAD Scholars can hang out on campus and get free printing and computer access, and that’s a wonderful place to spend time between classes. There are events put on by LEAD Scholars about once a week… from caramel apple dipping to a winter formal, the events are common and a lot of fun. Freshmen also get to live in on-campus housing with other LEAD Scholars (if they so choose)… which means to most of them that the friends they live with are the same people they go to events with, see in the LEAD Lounge, attend their LEAD class with, etc… just a wonderful to meet new people.</p>
<p>There’s absolutely no problem with doing both Honors and LEAD. From my own personal experience with both programs, I feel like I’ve gotten something from each, but nothing Honors has provided comes close to the benefits I’ve gotten from LEAD.</p>
<p>LEAD Scholars has two parts: the university-sponsored program and the LEAD Students Association (LSA). LSA puts on various events throughout the semester. These include competing in Homecoming (LEAD Scholars beat out over a dozen fraternity-sorority teams and the Honors College to place first overall in Homecoming this year–which is a pretty big deal), multiple dances–a winter formal, a Halloween dance, etc.–and get-togethers (like game nights, ice cream socials, pizza parties), scrapbooking, sporting events, competing on intramural teams together, tailgates where you can get free food prior to every home football game instead of having to pay through the roof at the stadium (have you guessed yet that there’s a lot of free food?), tons of community service events (visiting the homeless, the elderly, children, etc. and doing things for them… we do that about three or four times a week), and tons of other fun things. Students can attend these events (of course they’re all optional–no one has time to do them all! There’s a minimum of two events required per semester for freshmen, which is practically nothing. I personally went to about 25 all through last semester) and also help plan them on various committees within LSA. At the end of freshmen year, students can apply for the LSA positions and take on a position of leadership.</p>
<p>The program itself offers at least as many benefits. There’s the REEL Retreat that the program puts on before the semester even starts, where students get to know each other and have friends before the first day of fall classes. There’s special events that LEAD puts on–like for example, about 80 LEAD Scholars go to go to EPCOT (in Disney World) for free last year. There’s the Leadership Excellence Board, with whom students can help to market the program to high schools and help select the next class of students. You can live in LEAD Housing with other LEAD Scholars… some of the best friends I’ve ever had I met through living in the same building as them freshman year with LEAD, and I saw them not just at home but in my LEAD class, at LSA events, etc. There’s just tons of stuff to do within the program.</p>
<p>I hope I’ve given you enough examples to see that LEAD Scholars lets you find your niche and learn to excel in it until you become a better leader in that area, which in turn makes you become a better leader in all areas of your life. I really highly recommend the program.</p>