SOUL: Sociology Opportunities for Undergraduate Leadership
Sociology’s Program for First-Generation College Students – 328705
Giving Blue Day 2023 Donation Link
In Sociology, more than ⅓ of our majors are the first in the family to go to college. 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. In order to nurture those characteristics, the Department of Sociology has created a program designed to cultivate and support our first-generation leaders in Sociology: Sociology Opportunities for Undergraduate Leadership, or SOUL.
Your support for SOUL will help the program continue to grow and ensure that a greater number of first-generation students are afforded the tools and opportunities to flourish.
“I appreciate SOUL so much… it’s a nice reminder that there are other people in my shoes and I’m not struggling alone. It’s easy to fall into a pattern of ‘I don’t feel like I belong’, or ‘I feel like I’m working so hard while everyone already knows what they’re doing’; SOUL reminds you that you have a community, you’re supported, and you’re welcome. You’re gonna get through it!”
Contact
Dr. Matthew Sullivan,
SOUL Program Director
(msulli@umich.edu)
Jill Hoppenjans,
Sociology Academic Program Manager
(soc-acad.prog.mgr@umich.edu)