First Impact Program
The First Impact Program, established in 2019, is designed to provide leadership and service opportunities for first-year, freshman students. Students who join this program will build peer relationships, learn about campus resources and involvement opportunities, explore strength-based leadership, engage in community service, and build a network of peers.
Throughout first-year students’ First Impact experience, members are divided into peer groups led by upperclassman student mentors. These groups meet twice a month on Tuesdays at 5:00p.m. Participants are required to attend all meetings; for a full list of meeting times, please refer to the meetings tab.
In addition to scheduled meetings, First Impact offers students community engagement opportunities. These service projects support students’ development of servant leadership characteristics—empathy, awareness, foresight, stewardship, and more—while also positively impacting the city of Birmingham and its people. Ultimately, these experiences encourage First Impact members to explore our urban campus “as a space where knowledge and community meet.”
Learning & Programmatic Outcomes
As a result of serving as a First Impact member within the Office of Student Involvement & Leadership, students will
- Explore and develop their core beliefs—articulating these beliefs and their reasons for holding them to themselves and others,
- Identify and reflect on their strengths and challenges in connection to specific experiences to strengthen their leadership abilities,
- Participate in civically focused actions and develop awareness of how these actions positively affect communities and the individuals in those communities, and
- Experience and enhance their comfort and belonging in the UAB campus and community by expressing and experiencing acceptance, inclusion, and support.