UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Citing a desire to inspire student entrepreneurs, Penn State Smeal College of Business alumnus Doug Leech and his wife, Leila, have made a $550,000 commitment to endow the Douglas M. and Leila A. Leech Student Experienceship Fund at Smeal.

The fund will benefit undergraduate students who participate in a summer “experienceship” program coordinated through Smeal’s Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The program, which is led by entrepreneur and Department of Management and Organization instructor Travis Lesser, is designed to give students real-world working experiences with small, growing Pennsylvania businesses that have less than $1 million in annual revenues. 

The Leech’s gift will receive a dollar-for-dollar match from the University as part of the Economic Development Incentive Matching Program. Available during the recently completed “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence” fundraising campaign, the program offered a match for gifts to designated initiatives that promote economic development through new business and/or job creation, entrepreneurial scholarships or program funds to support entrepreneurial activities.

While candidates for the “experienceship” are typically enrolled in Smeal’s Corporate Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIENT) major, all rising third- or fourth-year Smeal students with an interest in entrepreneurship and innovation are eligible to apply.

Participants spend approximately 30 hours a week (a maximum of 300 total hours) over a minimum of 10 weeks working for a Pennsylvania startup or small company — many of which do not yet have the financial resources to offer a salary to interns. The Douglas M. and Leila A. Leech Student Experienceship Fund will provide student interns with a salary stipend.

“Participants not only gain real-world experience in small, growing businesses, but they also find new networking opportunities, develop professionally and leverage opportunities to apply the knowledge and skills they’ve been developing through their coursework and cocurricular opportunities at Smeal,” said Charles H. Whiteman, John and Karen Arnold Dean.

“I’m grateful to Doug and Leila for their belief in the power of entrepreneurship and for their gift to support this innovative program. Their contribution will allow more students to participate in the years to come.”

Leech, a second-generation Penn Stater, said that he began to suffer from depression and anxiety while enrolled as a freshman at Penn State and left the University for a semester to seek treatment in his home state of West Virginia. He returned to school “in a better place,” and he earned his degree in accounting in 2005.

He began his career at Ernst and Young in their Assurance and Advisory Business Practices but said he eventually struggled again with mental health, addiction and alcoholism. He said that, at 28, he “hit rock bottom,” finding himself in jail and then at a treatment center in Minnesota.

Leech said that therapy and counseling allowed him to work through the issues that led to his depression and anxiety — issues that were the catalyst for his addiction and alcoholism — and that he found happiness he hadn’t had since he was a child.

Reflecting on his personal experience and the challenges of finding a treatment facility in West Virginia, Leech tapped into his passion for entrepreneurship and founded West Virginia Sober Living, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that provides recovery housing, counseling, a peer recovery coach network, job training and workforce reintegration statewide.

When people started turning to Leech for advice on how to open similar behavioral health facilities, he saw another business opportunity.

In 2016, he founded Ascension Recovery Services, a company dedicated to creating financially sustainable business models that provide comprehensive, high-quality care for substance use disorders. To date, Ascension Recovery Services has launched more than 60 programs in 25 states.

Leech said he was proud that Ascension Recovery Services is considered the leader in developing and managing behavioral health programs and that it is recognized as one of the fastest growing health care companies in the country.

He said that addiction affects the entire family, and he credits his parents (Sharon, Doug and stepmother Dana) as well as his siblings (sister Christy and stepsiblings Jake, Aaron, Josh and Megan) for much of his success as both a businessman and a person in long-term recovery.

“My family believed I had the potential to be successful and help many people, but they also saw me crippled by depression, anxiety and addiction. I couldn’t have made it this far without their support,” Leech said.

He also credits his wife, Leila, a nurse practitioner whom he met in 2014, and their two sons, Dougie Jr. and Ryker.

“Leila and I were newlyweds when I started Ascension Recovery Services out of the basement of our home. I had almost no money to carry out my dream of expanding access to high-quality, sustainable behavioral health care, but she believed in me and encouraged me as I took on this huge risk,” he said. “She and our beautiful boys have traveled extensively with me as we’ve opened facilities around the country, and I could not have done this without their support.

“I am also grateful to God, my family, my team, and my brothers and sisters in recovery who have been along my side in this journey.”

Leech called it an honor and privilege to give back to others. “As we have success in our lives, we should be doing all that we can to help others,” he said.

That giving spirit was the motivation behind the Douglas M. and Leila A. Leech Student Experienceship Fund.

“Learning in the classroom is important and necessary. But seeing how it applies in the workplace makes it real,” Leech said. “In my experience, an internship is a pathway to success. Leila and I wanted to give more people the opportunity to have that experience. If those students go on to create new ventures of their own, even better.”

To learn more about the program, including how eligible businesses across the commonwealth can hire Smeal students for a summer experienceship, contact xship@psu.edu.

With the record-breaking success of “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” which raised $2.2 billion from 2016 to 2022, philanthropy is helping to sustain the University’s tradition of education, research, and service to communities across the Commonwealth and around the globe. Scholarships enable our institution to open doors and welcome students from every background, support for transformative experiences allows our students and faculty to fulfill their vast potential for leadership, and gifts toward discovery and excellence help us to serve and impact the world we share. To learn more about the impact of giving and the continuing need for support, visit raise.psu.edu.