With a growing applicant pool, DU’s Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP) is set to accept 22 additional applicants from the freshman class starting next fall.

The incoming freshman PLP class will increase from 66 students to 88 students.

An email announcement from March 10 cited an increase in qualified applicants over the past two years as the reason for program expansion. There have been over 450 prospective students who have applied in the last two years.

“Fundamentally, we believe that all students can grow and develop as leaders, so it’s exciting to provide more students with the opportunity to learn through this leadership studies program,” said Executive Director Linda Olson.

Johnson-McFarlane Hall will continue to house PLP first years in a Living Learning Community (LLC) environment. Forty four students will live on the first floor while the other half will live on the second floor of the McFarlane wing of the dorm. There will be an additional LLCs housed on each floor along with PLP.

“Although it is gonna be different, it’s exciting to be able to get involved in whole LLC community,” said sophomore Emily Wolverton, a Biology major from Montrose, Colorado. Wolverton serves on the Scholar’s Board along with a handful of other PLP students from each class.

Both Wolverton and Olson expressed excitement regarding the new shared floor between PLP and two other LLCs.
“Before, PLP was its own thing. I think that this will help us be more socially engaged with the entire LLC community,” Wolverton added.