History

2005 - UW student, Alula Asfaw, founded UWDP after seeing a lack of diversity on campus. He brainstormed ideas with interested friends of how to work towards solving this issue and came up with a near-peer mentorship model.​

2006 - First cohort of mentors @ Renton, Foster, Chief Sealth; 30 UW student mentors paired with 100 mentees​

2008 - UWDP gets university support including staffing and office space in MGH 274; becomes a UW course through the COE​

2009 - UWDP gets its 1st AmeriCorps member, Stephen Sanoja​

2010 - UWDP receives Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant: $1 million grant to expand to 3 schools: Kent Meridian, Federal Way, Auburn​

2012 - UWDP receives $1.4 million to create and implement CCRA program through the Federal Race to The Top (RTTT) grant ​

2016 - RTTT grant phases out and CCRAs become stipend interns​

2017 - Participating school districts agree to cost share model to sustain the CCRA program; scope of DP expands to include more postsecondary pathways; new mission statement with a racial equity focus​

2018 - UWDP secures $1 million gift; HSLs become stipend internship roles as do lecture leads; UWDP moves to EXPD​

2019 - UWDP joins the Community Engagement & Leadership Education (CELE) Center ​

2022 - UWDP utilizes work-study awards for hourly paid CCRA intern positions​