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The First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community is a cutting-edge multicultural artistic program for incoming students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Bringing together young artists and leaders from across the U.S and beyond, the First Wave Learning Community offers students the opportunity to live, study and create together in a close-knit, dynamic campus community. Administered by the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI), the First Wave Learning Community is the first university program in the country centered on urban arts, spoken word and hip-hop culture.

The inaugural First Wave cohort of fifteen students began their UW-Madison career in the Fall 2007 Semester and currently there are sixty spoken word and hip hop artists on full-tuition scholarship or that have graduated from the First Wave Program.