The UW-Madison Athletic Department will launch a mandatory Life Skills Academy this fall to help freshman student athletes adjust to college life, particularly the challenges of academics, budgeting, alcohol and sex.
“The goal is to help them transition from high school to college,” said Kelli Richards, coordinator of the program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The first year is pretty much the hardest year in college. We are trying to provide information then that can help them succeed in all four years.”
The academy is part of the NCAA Foundation-Division I-A Athletic Directors Association CHAMPS Life Skills Program, which stands for Challenging Athletes’ Minds for Personal Success. The school has had a CHAMPS program for all athletes for almost 10 years, and that will continue, but the new program will focus on first-year students.