Who We Are
The Leadership and Ethics Institute in the Office of the Dean of Students wants each student to realize their potential as a leader to create positive change. Through participation in our leadership programs, students will learn to live and practice leadership every day to better serve their classroom, campus, and communities. We believe each student at UT has the capacity to lead.
What We’re Fundraising For
The Summer Internship Program provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to develop the skill sets necessary to transition from college to the workforce. Students gain professional experience through a 10-week, project-based internship that is designed to impact the Forty Acres.
The Internship Program is committed to removing barriers for students from all backgrounds and offers a competitive compensation package to help make the decision to participate in this high-impact experience easier.
CoachUT is an opportunity for students to receive five personalized, one-on-one coaching sessions with an executive coach over the course of a semester. CoachUT is a unique opportunity for students to focus on growth areas that are most important to them. In CoachUT, coaches establish a supportive, empowering relationship with their students that helps to shape their development in a tailored fashion. This type of leadership coaching is usually reserved for executives moving into the peak of their careers. The innovation of CoachUT is bringing this experience to students at a time when it can influence the trajectory of their future.
Your Impact
Support for the Internship Program goes directly towards providing students a competitive pay rate and the availability of housing assistance. This allows students the ability to choose this experience to further their future. The more opportunities for internship experiences we can provide students across the Forty Acres equals more opportunities for students to successfully contribute to their career field when they graduate.
One of our past participants said that “This internship gave me the opportunity to explore my personal strengths and how I could use them in a future career. I learned more about the environment I wish to work in and the kind of job duties that I would enjoy doing. In general, this summer confirmed my passion for public health and education and gave me the motivation to continue moving forward in this direction.”
The success of the internship program is its ability to connect learned experiences to the real world through a project-based approach. Internships are high-impact practices that bridge college to career and the summer internships program provides a springboard for UT students to launch themselves into their chosen profession. A member of the Summer 2019 cohort said it best when they said, “I definitely believe I was able to learn so much from this internship program whether it is through the weekly meetings, co-workers, or my supervisor. I always keep an open-mind because certain projects that were not in the original job-description, actually created a huge impact, and I was glad to be a part of the project.”
CoachUT offers students at any level of their academic career personalized leadership coaching from a coach who typically works with professionals looking to make the next big leap in their career. The chance to give a student that opportunity while they are still in school only sets them up for success sooner. One of the spring 2019 participants said, "This was one of the most life-changing experiences I've had, it opened my eyes to a new version of myself." Imagine the impact the Forty Acres community could make in the world if every student at UT had access to an opportunity like CoachUT to change their lives.
The cornerstone of CoachUT is the belief the everyone has the capacity to lead. Through the support of our coaches, students in the program get the opportunity to explore not only who they are as leaders, but how they can lead in their communities. Funding for the program gives students the confidence to see themselves as leaders. This can be seen in one of our 2019 participants when they wrote, "I didn't know if I would've called myself a leader, but I decided to apply anyway. However, my coach helped me see that even if your title isn't ‘leader,’ you're still a leader. Everyone has an impact on someone else whether you think so or not."