Eleven LEAD Scholar teams competed in the 8th Annual Service Learning Showcase recently; 53 UCF student groups participated in total.
LEAD Scholar teams received six scholarships and awards this year.
The award winning LEAD Scholar service learning projects included the following accolades: Significant Impact Scholarship, Social Sustainability Scholarship, Capacity Building Scholarship, Recognition of Excellence and the Social Justice Award.
Each LEAD Scholar is required to perform between 10-75 service hours each semester, be members of the program, and study the Social Change Model of Leadership in the LEAD Scholars curriculum. In 2010, LEAD Scholars completed more than 12,500 service hours. Service-learning is a great avenue for students to complete these requirements and gives students the opportunity to link leadership theory to practice.
Matthew Landon, a first-year LEAD Scholar who won one of the Service Learning Showcase scholarships, said, “Coming from out-of-state, service learning is not only a way for me to apply concepts from the classroom to reality, but also a way to get connected with the community and better understand the value of citizenship. Working with HOPE did not just get me in touch with some wonderful people; it let me see their audacity in enacting real social change and making it work for the betterment of the community and those within it. It beats a blackboard any day.”
LEAD Scholars is a program of the Office of Student Leadership Development in the Division of Student Development and Enrollment Service.