Program Expectations

While the scholarship agreement requirements listed in the scholarship offer are necessary to maintain the First Ascent Scholarship, we have high expectations of our scholars beyond these requirements. You were selected from a large applicant pool because you exhibited strong leadership and team building qualities. We expect you to utilize the qualities for the benefit of your cohort and the First Ascent Scholars team. To help you better understand our expectations we have outlined them below. Should you feel these expectations are beyond your scope, please reach out to our team for training and leadership support.

• We expect our scholars to arrive on time for events, meetings, classes, etc. Timeliness is an important aspect of professional behavior, and as representatives of the First Ascent Scholars Program, we expect our scholars to exhibit professionalism.
• We expect our scholars to attend ALL First Ascent Scholar events. We understand students have jobs and other obligations. To that affect, we will provide event information well in advance so that scholars can make necessary accommodations. Work is not an excuse to miss a mandatory First Ascent Scholars event. Should you need to miss an event, you are expected to reach out to the Scholarship Director in a timely manner to discuss.
• We expect our scholars to be responsive and communicative. We will communicate with you in a variety of ways including, your university email, text message, and phone calls. We expect you respond to our communication in a timely manner, and address any action items outlined in the communication. We also expect you communicate with your mentors to ensure a reciprocal mentor relationship.
• We expect our scholars to put school first. Life can get hectic, but our team is here to ensure ALL our scholars reach graduation. You are part of our team, and commitment to your education should be at the top of the list. If you feel barriers are in your way to putting school first, please talk with us. We are here to help you navigate how to prioritize.
• We expect our scholars to be respectful. We understand college will be a new environment and will come with many challenges. One challenge may be conflict with others across campus, or even on the First Ascent Scholars team. While it may feel easy to distance yourself from conflict, we know an important part of professional behavior is working through conflict and treating ALL people with respect. Respect looks like, engaging ALL students on the team, regardless of conflict, friendliness, timeliness, support and compassion.
• We expect our scholars to build community. We understand you will have your own college experience, but we expect our scholars to support each other and build community. We expect you will support each other, and hold one another accountable.

We hold these expectations not just of our scholars, but of ourselves. Know our team is here to help you grow and learn. We only ask you work with us to guide you in that learning.