ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ 50 underrepresented students primarily from Montbello High School in Denver and Hinkley High School in Aurora will attend a four-day College Summit program at the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder June 21-24 to help them apply for college admission during the next school year.
The program is aimed at helping students who might not otherwise have the confidence to apply, even though they have the interest and the ability to attend and succeed in college. Students in the program are usually first-generation college students from low-income families.
The Washington, D.C.-based College Summit organization has partnered with about 40 colleges and universities around the country to help bring underrepresented students to these schools to give them the skills they need to succeed once they're in college. College Summit students typically are "students whose college promise is better than their grades and scores would suggest," said Kinney Zalesne, deputy director of College Summit.
Seventy-nine percent of College Summit students enroll in college, and the retention rate for College Summit students is 80 percent. This is the third year that ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder has conducted a College Summit program.
According to Cynthia Gayles, the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder campus coordinator for College Summit, one of the key benefits of the program is the hands-on assistance the students receive to help them begin applying for college.
"We will have several writing coaches and a mentor for each of the students to help them work on their college essays, which they will need to apply to college," Gayles said. "Each of the students will put in 12 hours with a writing coach, who will help them each write their own stories for their college essays."
Many of the students participating in College Summit "have started out low in terms of their grade-point averages and then have improved," Gayles said. "One of the things we have them do is to explain the factors that affect their academic records -- about why their academic records were not good initially and why and how they've been able to improve."
All of the students also go through an admissions presentation, a financial aid presentation and fill out a "common application" for admission, which is used by the colleges and universities that partner with College Summit.
Recreational activities and group discussions also are a part of the four-day program's activities.
On Saturday night, June 23, an award banquet will be held for the group in which the students are recognized, as well as the staff members who coach them. Some final work is finished in a short-day session on Sunday, June 24.
A unique part of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder's program, Gayles said, is a workshop and dinner for parents of the students so they understand what their sons and daughters have learned through College Summit and so they can support them in the process of applying for college entrance.
For more information on ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder's College Summit program, contact Cynthia Gayles at (303) 492-7037. For information on the national College Summit program contact J.B. Schramm, executive director, or Kinney Zalesne, deputy director, at (202) 966-1222 or go to the College Summit Web site at .