Over the years, the staff of our original Scholar Support Program became known as the "go-to" people for college information because they were on high school campuses so often to meet with students in that program. Students other than those in our Scholar Support Program kept seeking out our staff to ask questions about college: "Can we afford to go?" "How does financial aid work?" "Where can I get a college application?" "What colleges should I apply to?" And of course, our staff spent time with them to point them in the right direction.
Clearly, a program was needed that would reach a much larger number of students than those served by our highly-selective Scholar Support Program, and that would connect with these students earlier in their high school careers – early enough that they could enroll in the necessary classes and work hard to achieve sufficient grades to gain college admission.
Our staff conceived of a one-week "College Academy" to be run in the summer of 2006. They recruited a group of 9th grade honors students as an Advisory Council, and asked them what topics they thought should be covered. They then got the Advisory Council to survey all of the 9th grade honors students about these issues – and this resulted in viral marketing as the Advisory Council recruited their friends. The result was our first Summer Academy, held in August on the campus of nearby Harvey Mudd College. It was a smashing success.
Then, unannounced the next month, the student Advisory Council showed up en masse at our office, and demanded that we turn the Academy into a year-round program. They were full of ideas for what we could do and ready to help with implementation. How could we say no?
In designing the year-round programming, Bright Prospect considered what was done in other programs from across the country that we knew to be successful – from Ohio and Minnesota to California – incorporating aspects of those programs that had proven to be critical for success. The resulting Bright Prospect Academy of Young Scholars programming thus incorporates best practices from across the nation, providing services to students beginning at the end of their 9th grade year and continuing throughout high school and into college.
Since its inception, the Academy has involved the students themselves in helping to define and develop program materials, and in planning, organizing and implementing program activities. This approach generates enthusiasm, ensures relevance, and most importantly, develops time and project management, organization and leadership skills among our students. By the time they head for college, our Young Scholars are ready to take on leadership roles in campus organizations – which has proven to significantly increase college retention and graduation rates.
All high school and college Academy students are organized into peer-support teams called “crews” that receive training and have specific responsibilities to each other; these are groups of friends who are essentially taking friendship to a higher level. A crew leader takes responsibility for organizing events, getting his team members to participate, and liaises with program staff to let them know when their intervention is required to help a student who is struggling. This innovative crew concept enables our small Academy staff to work effectively with large numbers of students, and develops exceptional leadership and teamwork skills among our students. The crew structure has the potential to be a cost-effective strategy that will result in higher college retention rates.
Perhaps the best measure of the Academy's success has been the growth of the program – from 22 students at one high school in the summer of 2006, to 500 students at five high schools in 2010 – all driven by the enthusiasm of the participants themselves. Rather than experiencing attrition over the high school years, the size of each class in our Academy grows by about 50% over the three years of high school as dedicated program participants recruit their friends to join. The crew structure of the Academy of Young Scholars is serving as a model that other college access and retention programs have already begun to emulate.
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