LEAPing into our Fifth Year
The UW–Madison LEAP (Learn, Experience, Advance, Participate) Forward Internship wrapped up it’s fifth successful summer of the program. LEAP was piloted in the summer of 2018 as a part of UW–Madison’s Anchor Partner Commitment to the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) and the Personalized Pathways Program. LEAP Forward has been designed as an equitable opportunity for MMSD rising 11th and 12th grade Pathways students and enables students to explore passions in health sciences through practical and professional experiences on UW–Madison’s campus. The program prioritizes admittance to students who are underrepresented, would be first generation college students, and/or students who are receiving free/reduced lunch. To ensure equitable access to this opportunity, LEAP Forward provides students with a lump sum wage as well as 1-college credit over the course of 6 weeks during the summer. This effort has been developed in collaboration with cross-campus entities and administered by the Office of Student Financial Aid with credit offered through the School of Education’s Department of Counseling Psychology.
This year’s cohort was comprised of 13 students from East, LaFollete, and Memorial high schools. The students interned 12 hours/week at 6 UW–Madison host sites which included: Morgridge Community Outreach, Veterinary Medicine, Physical Therapy, Allen Centennial Gardens, Cell Imagin Research Lab, Human Development and Family Studies, Wichman Clinical Teaching & Assessment Center, Center for Healthy Minds and College of Agriculture Life Sciences Academic Affairs. The students also had the opportunity to engage with 9 additional UW–Madison departments throughout their 6 week UW course. One LEAP intern commented, “I am very grateful to be part of the LEAP Forward internship and having the opportunity to understand what I want to do or do not want to do, because without this internship I would have never known what I might have been missing out on.”
This year’s cohort was comprised of 13 students from East, LaFollete, and Memorial high schools. The students interned 12 hours/week at 6 UW–Madison host sites which included: Morgridge Community Outreach, Veterinary Medicine, Physical Therapy, Allen Centennial Gardens, Cell Imagin Research Lab, Human Development and Family Studies, Wichman Clinical Teaching & Assessment Center, Center for Healthy Minds and College of Agriculture Life Sciences Academic Affairs. The students also had the opportunity to engage with 9 additional UW–Madison departments throughout their 6 week UW course. One LEAP intern commented, “I am very grateful to be part of the LEAP Forward internship and having the opportunity to understand what I want to do or do not want to do, because without this internship I would have never known what I might have been missing out on.”