Learn to Lead with Blue Chip Leadership

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If you’re looking to learn how to lead, inspire, and make an impact in your field once you graduate, you can get started as early as your first year on campus with Blue Chip Leadership. Blue Chip is a well-established leadership program at the University of Arizona, and one of the largest leadership programs in the country. Open to all majors, Blue Chip empowers students to be confident and engaged leaders in any career. You’ll learn and grow through mentorship, experiential learning, and fun!

Aaron Davis Martinez, M.Ed., Associate Director of the Blue Chip Leadership Experience, shares more about this incredible opportunity.

What is Blue Chip?

Blue Chip is the University of Arizona's flagship leadership program. Its first cohort launched in 1999, and the program now supports more than 600 students each year through courses, mentorship, and experiential learning.

Blue Chip will help you to grow to be a more confident leader. You will feel more prepared for your career, distinguish yourself, and meet your best friends.

You can participate in Blue Chip for one to all four years of your college journey, and ultimately earn a minor in Leadership Studies & Practice, if you choose. The program is cohort-based, so you move through it with your peers, taking a new class each semester. Embedded in the classes are experiential learning opportunities like an Escape Room Challenge, a campus-wide team scavenger hunt competition, large-scale service projects, and retreats.

The sense of belonging that we create here for our students is special. It's such a big campus, so moving through the four years of Blue Chip with your cohort and teammates really helps to make the U of A feel like your second home.

Insider Tip: The name Blue Chip comes from the stock market where market leaders with a long history of success and excellent reputations are known as blue chips. 

Who can participate in Blue Chip?

Each spring and summer we recruit for first-year and second-year students, and the only requirement is your interest. We have always been open to all majors, and there is no GPA requirement. Leadership doesn't require a perfect GPA. In fact, some of the world's most innovative and impactful thinkers didn't hold a perfect GPA.

There is a $250 program fee to help support the cost of our programming and staff. However, we strive to ensure that cost is not a barrier for any student to participate, and financial support options are available to assist with the program fee.

What does the program look like?

Most students participate in Blue Chip for one year, but many students that are seeking further leadership opportunities in Blue Chip and throughout campus participate for all four years.

First-year students start in a one-credit class with a small team of 15 to 20 other first-year students that meet weekly. Their team is led by a peer mentor, a junior or senior in Blue Chip, that facilitates activities, games, and discussions so students can practice the leadership concepts they are learning throughout the course. 

As you continue in Blue Chip, you learn more about problem solving, group management, leadership practice, and executive presence.

Our goal is to show students that each of us has leadership talents, and if we build and practice those talents, we become effective leaders.

Year four, students craft a TEDx-style presentation that focuses on solving a problem or trend in their intended career. Each April, they present these capstones to a wide audience of students, faculty, staff, and community and corporate partners.

In the past, some students have looked into burnout trends among early career professionals at the big four accounting firms, and others have looked into shifting hospitals to quality-focused pricing models that account for how patients' health actually improved, rather than simply the services they utilized.

Ultimately, our students are looking at innovative solutions and crafting a compelling presentation to spur change in their field.

Insider Tip: View a four-year plan example here.

 What’s new about this program for 2025/2026?

In the last three years, we have added more opportunities for students to meaningfully connect with each other, refined the course curriculum to work better for students, and built-in more peer-mentorship opportunities.

Starting in fall 2026, we will launch two General Education courses embedded within Blue Chip for first-year and second-year students, so Blue Chip will align even better with their degree path and U of A journey.

Sounds like now more than ever, the Blue Chip Leadership program is tailored to your interests, your schedule, and your academic and career goals. And the culmination of knowledge and opportunities can truly kick start a meaningful career and impactful contributions to the community around you. But let’s ask a few Blue Chip participants:

"Blue Chip has given me a family away from home. The program helped me step out of my comfort zone, connect with inspiring peers, and truly believe in the impact I can have. It has shaped the way I see myself as a leader; not just in the classroom, but in every corner of my life." -Chiji 

“Throughout my four years in the program, I have developed strong management and communication skills, created networking opportunities, and built lasting friendships with countless other successful Blue Chip students.” -Nick 

Discover more about Blue Chip:

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