A key aspect of the Academy of Young Scholars is giving the young participants themselves plenty of opportunity to participate in conceptualizing, planning and implementing the Academy activities and workshops. This provides vivid and organic opportunities for them to develop leadership, communication, organization and management skills.
At each school, we organize our students into "crews" (peer support teams) of five or six who encourage each other and assume specific responsibilities for organizing Academy activities. The crews are led by leaders who go through our leadership training program. This model promotes a college-going culture at their high schools and provides organized peer support among our students, who actively participate in envisioning, planning and implementing our programming (thus acquiring project management experience). It also makes the program extraordinarily cost effective – we are able to operate this highly successful program for over 400 students at five high schools with just three full-time and one part-time staff.Throughout the academic year, weekly tutoring sessions are required for all Academy students. Each crew also meets weekly for peer mentoring sessions at which academic, social and personal issues are discussed. Crew leaders are trained to alert Bright Prospect staff about any issue serious enough that student health or academic success is in jeopardy.
Monthly meetings focus on topics that broaden our Young Scholars' perspective and create opportunities for building life skills through projects and activities that require the Scholars to show initiative, organization, communication and follow-through.
Each semester, Academy students tour a college campus, including both nearby public and private schools. Additionally, twice per year, Academy students go to a museum, symphony, live theater or other cultural excursion. These trips expand their perspective of the world, which otherwise would be as narrow as the corridor between home, school, work, and the nearest shopping mall.
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