The Day One Leadership Program is a community designed for incoming freshmen who wish to participate in community service and enhance their leadership skills.
Approaching its 16th anniversary, the program opened in the fall of 2007 and is only available during the fall semester.
Stephen Williams, associate director of student leadership and community engagement, said the program was started by former MSU president Robert Foglesong who believed the college needed a leadership program.  
Program participants are required to attend a Tuesday and Thursday class each week.
Williams said the program is available for students with a passion for leadership and service.
“We are looking for freshmen that are established leaders already or those that have an interest in being involved and learning more about leadership, but haven’t found their niche yet,” Williams said.
The Day One Leadership Program application is open to any student. According to Williams, student selection is not based on GPA, ACT scores, or any other academic qualifications.
“We do ask what their major is going to be, but that’s not a factor in selection. We really are just looking for incoming freshmen who have an interest in learning more about leadership and doing community service,” Williams said. “Basically, if they take the application seriously, we are going to accept them into the program.”
Day One has a capacity of two hundred students; however, students are broken into groups of 25 per classroom. From these 25, project groups are then broken into five to seven students.
The project groups are assigned a community partner, which are chosen based on groups in the community needing additional assistance.
The students meet with this partner and decide on a semester-long service project.
Additionally, each student is required to do 20 hours of community service for their project partner during the program.
Gabriella Ybarra, a junior majoring in special education, was a student in the Day One Leadership Program in fall 2019. She said the program changed the trajectory of her life.
Although she began her college career as psychology major, Ybarra started to reevaluate her choice after her group was assigned to serve at an after-school program.
“I ended up changing my major to special education because I really found my calling,” Ybarra said. “Without the program, I feel like eventually I would have found my calling, but because of it, I was able to find it sooner rather than later.”
Like Ybarra, Zac Clay, a junior majoring in agribusiness, also participated in the program in fall 2019.
Clay said the program helped the students step out of their comfort zone.
“The class was really to help us be more outgoing and take charge of things,” Clay said. “This class really helps you become extroverted and to put yourself out there.”
Clay said the program is beneficial for students wanting a more personal connection with both local citizens and MSU students.
“It’s a great way to make friends and get out in the community and to get your name out there,” Clay said.
Associate Director Williams said one Day One’s most important goal is to assist and guide the program’s incoming freshmen. He said he wants all of the Day One students to be successful at MSU.
“The focus really is leadership and community service, but we also want to make sure that they are going to be successful as college students,” Williams said. “We have students that have issues come up that are stress related or dealing with just being a college student away from home for the first time. We also help them navigate those things as well.”
For more information about the Day One Leadership Program, visit the program’s website.

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Hailey Storey | The Reflector

The Day One Leadership Program office in Moseley Hall showcases new wall art of popular Starkville and MSU locations.