Identify and Select Our Scholars

Bright Prospect solicits counselors and teachers at thirteen public high schools to nominate high school juniors who qualify for the program financially and academically. The minimum weighted GPA required of our Scholars is 3.4, though well over half are above 4.0. In general, students’ families must be earning less than $30,000 per year for a family of four. The selection process includes an application form, an autobiographical essay, current transcript and tax return, an interview and a home visit. We are looking for students who are hungry to go beyond the usual expectations for youth in their community, who have been successful in honors and A.P. classes, and who are open to going to an out-of-state college.

Summer Programming for Rising High School Seniors

During the summer before their senior year of high school, we build close relationships between our students and staff through a number of academic and cultural activities. We work closely with our students to guide them in the time-consuming process of writing and revising the personal statements and essays that will form a part of their college applications in the fall. We arrange for our students to take SAT preparation classes at no charge. We explain the college and financial aid application process to our students and their families, and teach them how to organize a 4-month project plan and timeline for this complex and arduous activity. We also take our students to the Hollywood Bowl, a theater performance at the Ahmanson Theatre or Mark Taper Forum, the Norton Simon Museum, the Huntington Library, and other venues to broaden their cultural knowledge and allow them to be comfortable attending and discussing such events while in college, as well as to provide additional opportunities for our staff to get to know the personality of each student, so that we can provide better guidance to start each student in their college selection process.

College Guidance and Application Assistance

Each fall, Bright Prospect arranges for college recruiters from nearly 50 selective colleges to meet our students in our offices. (Historically these college recruiters never visited the high schools we serve.) Bright Prospect staff meet weekly with each student to identify colleges that might best align with their interests and finalize their list of 10 private colleges plus the UCs, and guide them in completing their college and financial aid applications. Each Bright Prospect student applies to ten private colleges as well as UC and Cal State campuses

Involving Parents Throughout the Process

Our students are typically the first in their family to attend college, so we conduct informational meetings for parents throughout the year. At one especially inspiring meeting, the parents of previous years’ students share their experiences about their children now attending college away from home with the parents of our current high school seniors. We do this so that these “college parents” can imbue the parents of the high school seniors with confidence in making the decision to allow their son or daughter to attend an institution that may be far from home. We have a similar meeting for the students, where our college students home on winter break meet with our high school seniors to share their college experiences with them.

Making the Final Choice of College

By April 1st, every scholar receives multiple offers of admission and financial aid at prestigious private and public colleges and universities. Deciphering and comparing these offers is confusing to the best prepared parent and student, and to those we serve, the decision process can appear bewildering. We meet with each student and their family to review and explain the offers, and to show them a side-by-side comparison of the financial implications of each offer in terms of the student loans and/or family contribution that would be needed at each admitting institution. We help the students develop their own list of pros and cons of each college in terms of their own personalities and academic goals. Most of these colleges pay for our students to fly out and visit their campuses; most students get to visit at least one and sometimes two or three of their top choices. For most of our students, this is the first airplane flight of their lives, and we prepare them to navigate airport check-in, security, connecting flights, and ground transportation at their destination… on their own. Eventually, we are there to support their final choice, whatever that may be, before the May 1 acceptance deadline.

Preparing for the Transition to College

Each January, our college students share with our high school seniors their experiences transitioning to college, and the social, cultural, financial and academic challenges they actually encountered in attending elite institutions as low-income students. In the summer before our Scholars leave for their freshman year at college, we conduct a three-day summer retreat at a donated mountain cabin, at which our older college students share their experiences in greater detail, offering practical advice and mentoring their younger counterparts. A college professor joins our program staff in workshops that stress the importance of building relationships with college professors and advisors, befriending students from diverse backgrounds, accessing all available resources at their selected schools to enhance their college experience, and most importantly, maintaining communication with Bright Prospect staff throughout their college years – especially when they encounter difficulty.

Ongoing Support in College

While our students are in college, we maintain frequent contact with them to monitor their social adjustment to their new environment and their academic progress. If a student experiences culture or social shock, or just plain homesickness, we work hand-in-hand with on-campus resources to solve their particular issue. If a student becomes academically overwhelmed, Bright Prospect staff keeps in close communication with the college dean who works with the student to help him/her manage the workload. If a student’s family experiences an emergency, Bright Prospect provides financial assistance and referrals to medical, legal or social services as necessary, as well as moral support, so that the student will not feel compelled to drop out of school to assist the family. Our team does whatever it takes, 24/7, to help our college students resolve whatever challenges seem about to overwhelm them, with the result that 96% of our students have graduated or are on track to graduate with their Bachelors Degrees.

Additionally, on a case-by-case basis Bright Prospect may pay for two round-trip airfares per year, books, health insurance and warm winter clothing if those are not included in a student’s financial aid package.

Scholars Volunteer in the Program

72% of students in our Scholar Support Program have volunteered their time to assist us in delivering the program to our high school constituency. Perhaps the broadest reach is achieved when our college students speak to 9th and 10th grade English classes about their college experiences while they are home on winter break. College students also participate enthusiastically in our summer programming for high school students, and many call our office starting in March to find out which of our high school seniors were accepted at their college, so they can arrange to host them when they visit in April.

Scholars Support Program Alumni

Scholar Support Program alumni have entered the work force as professionals in fields as diverse as engineering, real-estate development, teaching and social work. Others have continued their education and have already earned advanced degrees or are currently attending graduate programs at Stanford, UC Irvine, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Law School, UC Berkeley Law School, Loyola Law School, and a number of medical schools.

A group of alumni took the initiative in 2009 to organize the Bright Prospect Alumni Network, which has set among its many goals the development of a professional network among alumni, and communication between alumni and current Bright Prospect college students to mentor the latter as they prepare to transition to their post-graduation goals of professional employment or graduate studies.