USC program prepares students for college

"If students can’t write, they will face problems in every class they take as freshmen," says USC professor William Tierney.

A program at USC aims to give them the skills they need to cope. More than 100 college-bound students from low-income neighborhoods in the L.A. Unified district are attending USC SummerTIME (Tools for Information, Motivation and Education), a program started by Tierney.

Instructor Katherine Karlin, left center, discusses a reading exercise the Jesus Torres, 17, who will go to UC Berkeley, and Yesenia Reyna, 18, who will go to UC Irvine.

At right is Jennifer Garcia, 18, who will go to Reed College.

SummerTIME emphasizes essay-writing skills and aims to keep students from dropping out. Less than 50% of African American and Latino students graduate from universities within six years, according to a recent study published by the Education Trust.

SummerTIME is a project of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, a research branch of USC's Rossier School of Education. In its seven years, the program has grown from 35 students to more than 120. About 90 of them are recent high school graduates who have been accepted to various universities. The rest are incoming high school seniors.

Students spend four hours each day analyzing and discussing reading assignments and sharpening their essay-writing skills, working in small groups and one-on-one with instructors.

-- Mary MacVean

Photos: USC

   

 

   

Comments

[Herb]

Congratulations Jesus! You're looking good! Your former homeroom teacher, Mr. Rosenbloom.

[Robert, L.A.]

I have a slightly different area for new colleges students to consider- homesickness. I expect that these college-bound students are capable in reading skills, something that I found in my teaching experience in LAUSD to be the biggest but not the only obstacle to learning. At the college level, there may be times that the only means to establish what a student has learned is solely by the writings turned in to the professors. Good writing is essential to success in college, and the improvement comes with more writing, with additional training always useful to continue refining the skill. The other obstacle often is not even considered fully for it’s impact on the college freshman.
I heard of a particular program a few years ago- I don’t remember the name- a pre-college one that was designed to help students from ethnic and racial minorities and from low-income backgrounds. They met with other similarly situated students heading to the same schools so that the "homesickness" element could be overcome by preparing for mutual support and knowledge of what is ahead.
I think that for many students, the travel to another environment, different in so many ways from what they were accustomed to while in high school, can be the unexpected reason for them to leave school. I look back on my own experience in the 60s and living in a dorm away from home for the first time. I was ready to leave in the first quarter because it was something I really was not expecting- and I was only in San Diego. Actually, I didn't know what to expect in college and was really overcome by the strangeness of it all. I managed to get over that after a few mini-interventions and finally gained some good friendships, as well, during that first year, and the "homesick" problem was overcome.
I graduated from that school after 4 years, while most of the group I entered with had transferred to other colleges for various reasons.
If students today can get some preparation to deal with being away from home for the first time, as in my case, they will be able to more easily adjust and get down to the class work with fewer distractions and better performance.
Of course, young people are often more well traveled and experienced now than years ago and many and will have no problem at all in this area. Yet there are still many for whom the college phase is going to be a culture shock if no one clues them in ahead of time. Knowing a few other students from your own background helps to ease into new situation and avoid becoming discouraged with the new and major opportunity.
Knowledge and preparation is so helpful in most endeavors. Another helpful device for success in learning and test preparation is the “study group,” but that’s another topic deserving of it’s own discussion.

Good luck to these students in making the most of the opportunity presented to them.