The Ignite program began as an opportunity for three hundred incoming freshmen to take part in a three-day retreat at Coker Creek, in Tellico, Tennessee, designed to help students shape skills offered through the Center for Leadership and Service in the Division of Student Life. In 2013, when statistics showing that 94 percent of Ignite students persisted to the sophomore year, the program was expanded as a function of Student Life’s Office of New Students and Family Programming. Added were a “Serves” five-day service program in Knoxville and “Outdoors,” a six-day outdoor leadership program. The addition of the two programs brought the number of students who could participate in the opportunity to learn about involvement at UT and life outside the classroom from three hundred to eight hundred.