The University of Wisconsin said Wednesday it will begin a mandatory program this fall to acclimate freshman athletes to life in college and beyond.

The Life Skills Academy will require all UW freshman athletes from every sport to attend six sessions spread throughout the year geared toward improving their abilities to handle the transition from high school to a more independent lifestyle.

Assistant Athletic Director Doug Tiedt said student athletes, like all other students, face challenges they have never faced before in their life during their first year at college.

“There’s a lot of things that are changing,” Tiedt said. “You’re living on your own, responsible for your own activities.”

According to Kelli Richards, UW life skills coordinator, the university has run similar programming for the last four or five years, but it has been optional for all athletes.

Richards said while the program topics are not yet finalized, the topic of academic success will definitely be on the list. She said this will include discussions about academic misconduct, time management and study skills.

She added she will “make sure we touch on bigger issues” like alcohol, sexual assault and proper nutrition.

The largest change between the old program and the new one is the use of peer leaders, according to Richards.

She said 35 student athletes, sophomores through seniors, have agreed to take the training and be group leaders to help guide the freshmen through the program and their first year of college.

Tiedt said the positive side of this program is “killing two birds with one stone” because, not only do the freshmen learn life skills, but the older students learn leadership abilities that will help them after school is over.

The freshman program will consist of six sessions spread throughout the entire academic year, Richards said.

The first half of each program will be led by an expert on each topic, and the second half will be spent in small groups led by the peer leaders.

According to Tiedt, the sessions will be spread throughout the year because it will be more effective than having one long orientation session like UW Student Orientation and Registration in which students reach a point that they can no longer pay attention to what is being said.

Richards said the new program will not require any additional funding from the UW athletic department. It will only require a change in how their money is spent.

“In past years we’ve had one speaker all student athletes have to see, but now we’re not having that anymore,” Richards said.

The program will also require athletes to participate in groups with athletes from other sports, Tiedt said.

“This is very important because so much time is spent with their own teammates,” Tiedt said. “We felt it was important to get students to meet with students from different sports to get a different perspective.”

Richards added group leadership training will begin for the peer leaders in the next couple of weeks.