UW-River Falls grad wins prestigious Bush Fellowship honor 

His work helps students find success through nontraditional learning approach

July 27, 2023 - Growing up in St. Paul, Alexander Leonard was a smart child who did well academically despite facing challenges as a Black child among classmates who were mostly white. 

Leonard, a 2017 graduate of the school counseling master’s degree program at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, uses his experiences overcoming struggles to help students who struggle in school do the same. His work on that front at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis has been so effective that Leonard recently was named a 2023 Bush Fellowship recipient.

Leonard is co-founder of the innovative and acclaimed Community Connected Academy at Patrick Henry High School. Students who are part of that program have experienced remarkable success, with 99% of them graduating. The majority of students in the academy are Black.

“I wanted to be able to provide support to students like me,” Leonard said when asked what prompted him to start Community Connected Academy with a colleague. “So many people helped me along the way, and I wanted to pay it forward and help young people.”

Leonard is one of 24 Bush Fellowship recipients chosen from nearly 500 applicants from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. He and others honored with the award receive up to $100,000 to pay for 24 months of study to build leadership skills. The fellowships are granted by the St. Paul-based Bush Foundation.

Community Connected Academy is open to all students, Leonard said, and focuses on those who desire a different learning model because they struggle in traditional settings. The program helps students build confidence in themselves and overcome difficulties, fear and self-doubt. 

The effort initially served about 50 juniors each school year; it now includes more than 100 juniors and seniors annually. 

“The goal is to get students doing hands-on learning and having a voice in their learning,” Leonard said, noting his students explore career options and learn other skills as part of Community Connected Academy. “Our whole thing is ‘Let's get you out and see if you really have an interest in that (profession).’”

Leonard’s selection as a Bush Fellowship recipient marks the second consecutive year that a UWRF graduate has earned that prestigious honor. Kaltun Abdikarani, also a graduate of the masters in school counseling program, received the honor in 2022. 

Professor Mark Gillen in the School Counseling Program at UWRF, who taught Leonard and has done presentations with him about Community Connected Academy, invites Leonard back to campus to speak with UWRF counseling program students. 

“Alex has such passion for students who are underrepresented in school, students who are struggling,” Gillen said. “He is one of the best advocates for change that I have ever worked with.”

Having two Bush Fellowship recipients in consecutive years from the UWRF school counseling program is a point of pride that showcases the program’s quality, Gillen said. 

“This is a pretty big deal for us,” he said. “You have more than 400 applicants, and to have one of our students win that honor two years in a row, it’s amazing.”

Prior to attending UWRF, Leonard was working as dean of students at Patrick Henry High School. His colleagues urged him to become a school counselor, and the school counseling program at UWRF allowed him to earn his master’s degree while continuing to work. He praised the education he received at UWRF. 

“They do a really good job of preparing us to get out into the field to be ready to work with students,” Leonard said. “I learned that counselors can show up and reach kids in a lot of different ways. That is something I take with me today.” 

Despite his success helping at-risk students find success, Leonard is leaving his high school counselor job. He will spend his time as a Bush Fellow, studying ways to keep Black and Brown teachers in their profession, and he plans his future employment in that area. Doing so will involve helping those educators address long-term impacts of racial trauma and finding ways to heal past damage and build resilience, he said. That work is key to helping give Black and Brown students educators they can better relate to.

“The work I want to do is to help Black and Brown educators find a way to heal the racialized trauma that is a part of them,” Leonard said. “I want to help them find a better way to deal with that. Doing that work could be one good way to help retain those staff members. It’s something I really want to do.”