Rising Boulder High senior Ricardo Moreno is doing everything he can to become the first in his family to go to college, including earning high grades and playing football to help him qualify for scholarships.

So, he said, signing up for the Boulder Valley School District’s Grad Plus Leadership Academy was just one more way to get ahead as he works toward his plan of studying aerospace engineering.

He’s learning skills in the summer program that include how to look people in the eye, offer a firm handshake, answer common interview questions and collaborate with others. The program also includes an internship with the school district’s operations team.“I want to do the best I can,” he said. “I want to go to college. I want to do anything that can help me in any way. I’m learning skills I’m going to use for the rest of my life.”

He’s one of 25 students chosen from a 100-student applicant pool of rising juniors and seniors to participate. The academy includes a week of workshops on leadership and job skills, followed by internships. Students will spend 20 hours a week for four weeks working in school district departments or at local nonprofit organizations and businesses.

Boulder Valley piloted the leadership academy last summer. The idea came from Stuart Lord, a leadership consultant and former Naropa University president who was inspired by a talk on the importance of internships by Gov. Jared Polis. He brought the idea to the school district and is continuing to co-lead the program.

Bianca Gallegos, Boulder Valley’s executive director of strategic partnerships, said the leadership academy is a good fit for the Grad Plus initiative, which includes providing work-based learning opportunities to better prepare students for life after high school.

The Leadership Academy program, with support from Impact on Education, includes an opportunity for students to take the College Board’s College-Level Examination Program exams to earn college credit.

By the end, each student will earn a Grad Plus medal, a work-based learning pin and a college credit pin. Impact on Education also is providing a $500 “honorarium” to each student who completes the program. An awards ceremony for the participants is set for Aug. 7.

“The biggest value that we saw was a gain in the students’ confidence,” Gallegos said.

Wednesday, students got advice on their resumes from seven coaches from local businesses, followed by a teamwork exercise that required them to compete in groups to build the tallest spaghetti and marshmallow towers. For Thursday, 25 community volunteers planned to lead three rounds of one-on-one mock interviews with the students. Friday, they visited the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office to learn about the different job opportunities, from communications to human resources.

Kavi Gokula Giridaran, a rising senior at Peak to Peak Charter School who is interning with the district’s technology department, said she saw the academy as “a really cool opportunity.” Her goal is to go into a STEM field.

“They teach you skills for life after high school,” she said. “There are a lot of skills I learned here that I didn’t know before.”

She said those include learning different leadership styles, how to professionally manage conflicts, how to write a resume with no previous work experience and how to network.

Rising Centaurus High senior Nick Tadlock, who is interning with the non-profit Colorado Agrivoltaic Center near Longmont, said he’s not sure what field he wants to go into and so wanted to “know more about what’s out there and more about the world.”

“I’ve learned that internships can change your perspective on different careers,” he said.

He’s interning with Emma Miller, who is part of the Colorado Agrivoltaic Center’s education team and helped students with their resumes Wednesday.

“This is another way to expose students to jobs they hadn’t considered,” she said. “I want to teach them hands-on work skills and executive skills like time management, how do you tackle a new project, how do you collaborate professionally. It’s all of these things you don’t usually get to learn in a classroom.”