Teagle grant supports new summer program for high schoolers

A $240,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation of New York City will support “SEO-Skidmore Connections,” a three-year partnership designed to enhance the college readiness of talented but underserved high school students.

The grant will be split between Skidmore’s Pre-College Program, a summer offering under the auspices of the Office of the Dean of Special Programs, and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a community-based educational organization in New York City.  SEO assists young people of color in obtaining hands-on leadership experience in their families, their schools, and their careers.

SEO helps motivated high school students gain college admission through a rigorous program that combines academics and assessment.  Students enrolled in the SEO Scholars Program come from all five of New York City’s boroughs.  They attend smaller classes (some of which take place after the usual school day ends and on Saturdays) that are frequently taught by college instructors.  The typical SEO Scholar spends an equivalent of 60 additional days (on top of the customary 180 days of the standard school year) in class.

The Skidmore piece of the program deals with the SEO Scholars’ summer time. Beginning this year, 12 rising juniors will enroll in Skidmore’s Pre-College Program, where they will take regular college classes.  James Chansky, director of summer sessions and summer special programs, is confident of the students’ abilities to succeed.  “We have an Olympic pool,” he says, of the Skidmore summer session schedule.  “We’re taking Junior Olympians and throwing them in.”  The summer sessions compress a typical full-semester course into just five weeks—classes are taught for three to four hours daily.  Says Chansky, “They will get a real sense of what college is like, in terms of the knowledge they gain and the work that is required.”

Skidmore has offered a Pre-College Program for high school students for more than three decades, in recent years enrolling about 75 students each summer.  The SEO-Skidmore Connections is essentially a “program within that established program,” Chansky explained.  “The purpose of the grant is to help these students get ready for college-level academics.  We hope to help them test their abilities to succeed. They will get a clear sense of the work that is required, the amount of self-discipline they will need, how much they will have to focus, and how to manage their time.”

All SEO-Skidmore Connections students will enroll in two courses.  They are required to take a writing course and then, said Chansky, “we want them to study something they love.”  Students are able to pick from a range of Skidmore’s summer offerings in the humanities, social and natural sciences and studio art. According to Chansky, “The idea is that they will choose a course that plays to their strengths.”

Although the SEO-Skidmore Connections program is new, Chansky knows from experience that motivated students in this age range have the capacity to succeed.  “Alumni of the Pre-College Program often apply to Skidmore,” he said.  “About a dozen students in every first-year class are Pre-College Program alumni.”  And this summer, two siblings who are Pre-College Program alumni will serve as RAs and live in the residence halls with this summer’s Pre-College students.  Chansky says that he often hears from current Skidmore students who are Pre-College alumni who wish to work with the program and stay on campus during the summer.

SEO program staff will visit Skidmore two or three times during the summer in order to observe the classes and establish relationships with Skidmore faculty.  Although SEO Scholars will finish course work on campus this summer, their Skidmore connection will continue during the school year when a Skidmore faculty member from the summer provides a one-day program during the school year that will echo some of the summer work but also focus on analytic skills.  This will allow SEO faculty to conduct five or six classroom additional classroom sessions for the entire 12th-grade student body, based on content taught by the Skidmore faculty member.

In addition, representatives of Skidmore’s Opportunity Programs will visit SEO to conduct a special admissions, financial aid, and student support services workshop for all SEO students.

The Teagle funds will provide about half the cost of tuition, room and board for the SEO Scholars attending Skidmore’s Pre-College Summer Program. The grant is part of the Teagle Foundation’s College-Community Connections Program which is designed to forge collaborations between community-based organizations that have strong college preparatory programs and colleges and universities.  Goals of the College-Community Connections Program are to encourage talented high school students to aim high in setting academic goals, and to encourage colleges and universities to commit to the partnership.