A Message from the Director
Thank you for your interest in the SOUL Program! We strive to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the University of Michigan by recognizing that in addition to recruiting students from traditionally marginalized and under-represented communities, we must also give them the tools they need to succeed. Now in our fourth year, we hope to expand to other units within Literature, Sciences, and the Arts (LSA). If you are first-gen sociology major, please consider applying for SOUL. If you are a first-gen from another department, let them know that you’d like something like SOUL in your department. If you are an instructor or the family of a first-gen at the University of Michigan, please see our pages for you linked above. And please feel free to reach out to me personally if you have any questions regarding SOUL or the first-gen experience here at the university. Thanks again for your interest!
What is SOUL?
SOUL stands for Sociology Opportunities for Undergraduate Leadership. The SOUL Program is the first department-level leadership program for first-generation college students at the University of Michigan. In Sociology, we recognize that first-generation college students at the University of Michigan face unusual social, academic, and financial challenges. But we also find that such students possess a unique set of qualifications and capabilities: curiosity, conscientiousness, persistence, risk-taking – in a word, grit. These are the characteristics of leaders. The Department of Sociology has created this program designed to cultivate and support our first-generation leaders in Sociology. Watch the video below to see what students have gotten out of the SOUL Program.
Contact
Dr. Matthew Sullivan,
SOUL Program Director
(msulli@umich.edu)
Jill Hoppenjans,
Sociology Academic Program Manager
(soc-acad.prog.mgr@umich.edu)