Going to college from high school can be a shock. In addition to encountering considerable decision-making, students often face academic demands that are far more rigorous than any they have experienced.
To help ease the transition, many Chicago-area colleges and universities offer programs to help high school students move smoothly into the undergraduate classroom.
Participants in the Young Scholars Project at Loyola University, Chicago, attend a six-week, full-time summer session in addition to Saturday classes during the school year. By applying what they learn in mathematics, physics and computer science, they build their own computers, which they are permitted to keep.
The program is open to minority students in the top 20 percent of their classes. Most are entering their junior or senior year when they go into the program.
“There is a looming shortage of scientists, engineers and mathematicians in this country,” said Eric Hamilton, associate professor of mathematical sciences at Loyola and a teacher in the program. “At the same time, minorities are under-represented in those fields. If we don’t give them the foundation before they get into college, they may not go into these majors.”
Many students are turned off early in high school, particularly by subjects such as algebra and geometry, he said. The Young Scholars curriculum includes hands-on laboratory work and field trips to high-tech companies such as Motorola Inc. in Schaumburg and Bell Laboratories in Lisle.
Joe McFee enjoyed the Young Scholars program so much the first year that he stayed on a second year as a teacher’s assistant. He graduated in June from Hyde Park Career Academy on the city’s South Side, and he plans to attend the Air Force Academy prep school in Colorado Springs.
“The program really prepares you for college while you’re still in high school,” he said. “It introduces you to the college format of lectures and classes.”
The Young Scholars Project is one of about 50 programs designed to promote minorities’ interest in mathematics and science offered under the umbrella organization Access 2000.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, Access 2000 is a partnership of Chicago-area public schools, colleges and universities; community organizations; and businesses. Programs are offered to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Classes are held at the buildings and campuses of the Access 2000 partners.
Another Access 2000 program is the Summer Science Institute, co-sponsored by Chicago State University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The participants, primarily juniors and seniors with grade-point averages of 2.7 or above, live on the campus for six weeks during summer.
Mornings are spent working on math and English skills; afternoons are devoted to scientific research projects, which they work on in small groups. Within certain parameters, the groups select their topics of study. Topics of past studies include the personality differences between fraternal and identical twins and the effects of danger on sleeping habits in animals, said Caroll Henry, professor and chairman of the biological sciences department at Chicago State University.
At the end of the session, the students attend a banquet at which they present their projects to faculty and parents.
The residential component “gets students to totally focus on learning and forget about the distractions of Chicago and any problems they have at home,” Henry said. “We have found once they get on campus, they gain a greater sense of academic rigor and also greater confidence and self-esteem that they can do well in their studies.”
Sarah Dunn attended the institute twice, once after her junior year at Hubbard High School on the Southwest Side and again after graduation. She is a sophomore at Chicago State University. Her summer experiences inspired her to major in science, she said.
“It also helped me improve my writing and math skills, and I learned how to conduct research thoroughly,” she said.
The College of Du Page in Glen Ellyn offers services to help students integrate high school and college courses with vocational training.
One is called articulated credit, in which students receive undergraduate credit for high-school courses that are identical to those offered at the college. Vocational and advanced-placement courses fall into this category, said Jane Benson, coordinator of high-school articulation and a physical education instructor at the college.
“The purpose of articulated credit is so the students can make a smooth transition from high school to college,” she explained. “It allows them to go to a higher level immediately without taking that course over again-that’s just a waste of time and education and money.”
Benson also works with high schools interested in establishing a “tech-prep track,” a course of high-school study designed to prepare an undecided student for a technical career, a four-year undergraduate degree or both.
“Tech prep is similar to college prep, but you’re taking technical courses in addition to (college-preparatory) courses,” she said. “For example, if you’re planning to go to college, you need more math (than if you aren’t). If you’re on the tech-prep track, maybe you would take computer programming instead of calculus.
“When you get out of high school, you then have the option to go to college or go into the work place. If you come on to COD, you can go into whatever program area you have chosen and maybe get a certificate or an associate’s degree. You can stop there or go on to a four-year college. There is a lot of flexibility.”
Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center, a high school on Chicago’s Northwest Side, has an informal but active adopt-a-school program with Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., and its Chicago alumni club.
About four years ago, the club was seeking to adopt a school as a project. A former Von Steuben teacher was also a parent of a Dartmouth graduate (parents are invited to participate in alumni activities). She heard about the club’s quest and recommended Von Steuben.
Club members frequently give lectures on various career fields and how to qualify for them, and one is the adviser to the school’s engineering club.
When Von Steuben students competed in the National History Fair in Washington the last two years, the alumni club provided frequent-flier miles so that two or three students and a chaperone could attend. (Von Steuben won first place in the nationwide competition both years.)
The club also provides pens that the school uses to recognize student achievement in various areas.
When the Dartmouth College glee club toured in spring 1992, Von Steuben was one of its stops.
“It has been a teriffic association,” Principal Joseph Catanzaro said. “The people from Dartmouth are incredibly service- and community-oriented. They’ve come in and helped kids write and edit the essays that go with their college applications and (once) had a speaker talk about things to do on a job interview. Those interviews are important to students planning to attend college, too. More and more colleges are requiring them, and the kids panic.”
Rosary College in River Forest has developed its College Preparedness Program to help Hispanic students going into their junior year of high school successfully prepare for college life.
The four-week summer program includes strengthening math and English skills, practice sessions for the ACT exam, mock interviews with college-admissions personnel and instruction in filling out financial aid forms. Most of the program’s staff is bilingual.
“A lot of these students and their families just don’t see college as an option,” said Lou Tenzis, associate academic dean and director of the program. “The first thing we want to do is show them the ways a college works and how to make a future for themselves.”
Positive reinforcement is frequent and ongoing, he added. Former program participants who have graduated from college return as guest speakers whenever possible. Classroom discussion covers issues of self-esteem and cultural diversity on American college campuses.
Another essential component is family involvement. Parents are encouraged to attend Spanish-language information sessions on the availability of financial aid and how to obtain it. A family potluck picnic also is held during the summer.
“Family support is critical to getting these kids into college,” Tenzis said. “The Hispanic family is very close-knit. We want them to see, too, that college is a genuine possibility, not just an abstract one.”
