This semester, the Center for Leadership and Community Service (CLCS) initiated the REACH (Realizing Every Ambition Can Happen) project, a three-semester program to educate and train female students about service leadership in the community.

Angie Cooper, of the CLCS, said that she created the program after looking at other women’s leadership programs at other schools and in the greater metro community.

The first phase of the program, titled “Reach In,” is introspective. “It is focused on developing personal leadership skills and looking within yourself and who you are as a person, to develop yourself as a leader,” Cooper said.

She noted that this is unique in the sense that other service organizations emphasize the served, not servers. “They really have a chance to look at themselves,” she said.

“Reach Out,” the second phase which will begin next semester for the first group of students, will introduce students to women leaders in the community. Using on-site visits and guest speakers, participants will observe and learn from leaders in a number of different fields and the service involved in those fields.

The third phase, “Reach Up,” will require students to apply what they have learned in the other phases in taking internships or other volunteer positions with service organizations. “It is developed to fit the needs of each particular woman,” Cooper said.

Cooper explained that participants are first recommended by faculty and then interviewed. Twenty are finally chosen to enroll in the program. One class is currently in phase one, and another will be interviewed soon.

Since the program requires a three-semester commitment, no seniors are enrolled, but there are some juniors, as well as freshmen and sophomores.

The importance of the program for the students will be based on the involvement of individual women, Cooper noted, but she said that on the whole, “They will see what it is they want to accomplish to become a strong leader.”

She also added: “They could really take something great out of it for a future career.”