Lead Forward Fellowship
The Lead Forward Fellowship is a competitive grant that provides teams of JMHC student leaders with the resources and coaching needed to enact a social impact project on campus or in another community. This includes a two-semester, curricular-based learning community where the fellows can discover essential strategies for social impact leadership, learn from each other’s experiences, and make meaning out of their challenges and successes through critical reflection. In this way, Lead Forward Fellows make a valuable impact on the world through a cause of great personal meaning and are themselves transformed as leaders, collaborators, and citizens.
Outlined below are the projects that Lead Forward Fellows have enacted as well as the portfolios they created to document their impact and learning. Several students who have participated in the fellowship have gone on to earn the Class of 1937 Scholarship* for leadership.
The mission of Appability is to create accessibility reporting solutions that are made by and for Disabled people. This initiative is led by Francis Corvin & Karsten Palm and is mentored by Phelan Tinsley.
Arts for the Heart helps Boilermakers discover different art forms and their capacity to help students de-stress, manage personal challenges, and create bonds with others to foster a supportive and accepting environment. This initiative is led by Avery Biggs and is mentored by Tiffany Botsford-Samuels.
The Boiler Substance Awareness Network aims to educate the Purdue community on substance use disorder (SUD), a commonly misunderstood medical condition. This initiative is led by Alyssa Collins, Rachel Issac, & Claire Wolfer-Jenkins and is mentored by Dr. Carol Ott and Dr. Mitchell Struewing.
The mission of the HonorServes Impact Team is to increase accessibility within HonorServes and develop an accessibility model for other organizations. This initiative is led by Natalie Horgan & Francis Corvin and is mentored by Dr. Rosanne Altstatt.
Mini-Movers at Purdue seeks to provide young children with disabilities with modified ride-on vehicles and increase interdisciplinary skills for Purdue students within the local community. Initiative led by Katie Essex & Michael Wise and is mentored by Dr. Brittany Newell.
SOAR through Leadership provides leadership & character development programming to local youth. Through a dynamic, game-based curriculum grounded in research, SOAR uplifts the leaders of tomorrow. This initiative is led by Saahil Aneja, Taylor Korn, Anushka Sharma, & Jake Zegger and is mentored by Dr. Adam Watkins.
Arts for the Heart helps Boilermakers discover different art forms and their capacity to help students de-stress, manage personal challenges, and create bonds with others to foster a supportive and accepting environment. This initiative was led by Avery Biggs, Hannah Charles-Reyes, & Amy Murdock and is mentored by Dr. Watkins. Highlights include adding 11 new members and hosting seven events that served 135+ Boilermakers, including one that featured Dr. Girija Kaimal, a national expert on art therapy.
- Avery Biggs*, Lead Forward Portfolio
SOAR through Leadership provides leadership & character development programming to local youth. Through a dynamic, game-based curriculum grounded in research, SOAR uplifts the leaders of tomorrow. This initiative was led by Molly Gard & Anushka Sharma and is mentored by Dr. Adam Watkins. Highlights for this year include delivering five leadership training sessions to local youth through an afterschool program, establishing the foundation for a research-based youth leadership development curriculum, and adding 15 new members. A special thanks goes to the community partners: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Lafayette and Lafayette Mentors.
- Molly Gard, Lead Forward Portfolio
- Anushka Sharma*, Lead Forward Portfolio
