Program Spotlight: Southern Oregon University's Precollege/Youth Programs

The Oregon College Access Challenge Grant provides schools, districts, colleges, universities, and community-based non-profit organizations opportunities to serve youth in their college-going dreams. Today's blog post features a currently-funded university.

 

SouthernOregon University Pre-College & Youth Programs received the College Access Challenge Grant in order to expand our three existing one week summer residential programs:  ACADEMY for Talented and Highly Able students, Konaway Nika Tillicum for Native American Youth, and  Academia Latina for Latino Youth. These three programs have expanded to serve more low income, first–generation students and under-represented Latino and Native American students.  These camps are designed to offer a broad range of academic classes, workshops, and activities that will inspire students to embrace the learning and expanded career opportunities that a post-secondary education offers. Our programs are renowned for stretching a student’s imagination as we simulate college campus life and academic engagement.

Program Spotlight: New Avenues for Youth

 
The Oregon College Access Challenge Grant provides schools, districts, colleges, universities, and community-based non-profit organizations opportunities to serve youth in their college-going dreams. Today's blog post features a currently-funded nonprofit organization.

June is always a time for celebration in education circles and here at New Avenues, this is no different. During June, we celebrated a number of our youths' successes at our annual graduation held at the Benson Hotel. Though the focus of the graduation is on our youth who completed our GED and/or Job Readiness program, a great deal of accolades were given to those youth who are currently enrolled in college and maintaining certain benchmarks. Among these benchmarks are:

• Enrolled in at least six credits
• Maintaining at least 2.5 GPA
• Consistently meeting with a case manager at New Avenues
• Meeting with an academic adviser at least once a term to plan out the following term

Though there were a number of youth recognized for these accomplishments, there was one particular female youth who really stood out. This individual has been engaged with services at New Avenues for over a year and a half, but she has really taken advantage of the program over the last nine months. This youth went from unemployed and sleeping on the streets to securing employment at Ben and Jerry’s (through a partnership with New Avenues) and shortly after becoming a shift manager, she was able to secure her own apartment and is now stable in housing. After these two benchmarks were achieved, this particular youth felt it was time to return to college. 

This however, was going to be an uphill battle as well. She had previously attempted to take classes at PCC in 2011, but due to an unstable living situation she was forced to withdraw and fell into Academic Probation which meant her Financial Aid would be suspended indefinitely. With Financial Aid suspended, this particular youth would have to pay out of pocket for at least a term in order to appeal the Academic Probation. After a lot of coaching around picking an efficient schedule that fit her skill set as well as work schedule and setting up opportunities for weekly tutoring at New Avenues, she was ready to return to PCC this past spring. Along with help with the class schedule and tutoring, New Avenues also assisted with purchasing books, applying for countless scholarships, provided bus tickets and set this youth up with a volunteer mentor from its Ambassador Board to provide another level of support and feedback.

By checking in weekly with her mentor and bi-weekly with New Avenues’ College Support Specialist, this youth had a remarkable spring. Not only did she pass all three of her classes, but she did so with flying colors: two A’s and a B. With these grades, she was able to appeal her Academic Probation and had her Financial Aid hold lifted. She’ll be back on Financial Aid in the fall and looking to wrap up her time at PCC over the following year:

 “Two A’s and a B is great and all, but I know I can do better. I have a goal of being a 4.0 student and now I know I can do it. With all of the support I get from New Avenues and on campus, I have no excuse not to. I can’t wait for the fall when I can really start showing PCC and myself what I’m capable of doing!”

                                            - 24 year old female New Avenues For Youth client

Program Spotlight: Tillamook School District

 
The Oregon College Access Challenge Grant provides schools, districts, colleges, universities, and community-based non-profit organizations opportunities to serve youth in their college-going dreams. Today's blog post features a currently-funded school district.

Tillamook County educators and community members held a series of meetings to discuss achievement and career/college readiness of its graduating high school students.  A Steering Committee and Stakeholders Committee were assigned the tasks of identifying community needs as well as developing models that would benefit and fulfill the task of guaranteeing graduating students the skills and knowledge needed to enter a career field or college.  The vision that evolved from these discussions is a daring undertaking. Using community resources and a partnership between Tillamook School District and Tillamook Bay Community College, every student attending Tillamook High School will graduate with career training and/or college readiness skills that will include up to one year of college-level coursework and/or career training.  The community-appropriate plan to achieve the vision is comprised of four broad components to be implemented by 2015: Freshman/Sophomore Academy, Junior/Senior Academy, Course Alignment/Educational Partnerships, and Intentional Summer Bridge Programs.

June 18-21, 2012 the first bridge program was launched.  Targeted at incoming high school freshman at risk based on test scores in reading and mathematics, the “Triple A” (Adventures in Academic Accomplishments) bridge was a partnership between Tillamook High School, Tillamook Bay Community College (who provided facilities), and George Fox University (GFU).  Student teachers from GFU provided instruction in reading/literature, mathematics, and life skills to the Tillamook students.  Oregon State University Open Campus and Extension Service provided activities for students as well.  This first bridge experience was a great success.  When the week ended, what had begun as a vision for a functional “bridge" was real authentic learning for both teachers and students. It was magic! Someone said it was like an outward bound or ropes course -lots of bonding and self insight. Others commented that "this is why I want to teach." Students were heard to say, “this is what school should be like.”  Plans are already underway for next year’s “Triple A” bridge to incorporate 9th to 10th grade and/or 10th to 11the grade components.

First in the Family

Looking for some resources for youth who will be the first in their family to attend college? First in the Family offers advice about college from first generation college students. You'll find videos, checklists, a list of helpful links, and downloadable guides. Advice is offered for those still in high school and thinking about college, as well as for those who are about to enter or already there.

Check out one of their videos here and then head on over to the website for a host of other resources:

Student Voices on the Higher Education Pathway

From Public Agenda comes information about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Postsecondary Success Initiative - Completion by Design: 

For many young Americans, community college represents one of the few remaining pathways to the American Dream—in fact, community colleges serve nearly half of the nation's undergraduate population. Yet less than half of the country's community college students graduate or transfer within 6 years.

Efforts to improve student learning and success at community colleges are in the spotlight, both in national policy and on community college campuses around the country. One of the central tenets of these efforts is to keep changes and improvements “student-centered”—that is, to keep the ultimate goal of improving the student experience in sight throughout the process of change.

Research and experience demonstrate that there are critical junctures along the pathway to community college completion where students tend to lose momentum and drop out. As we strive to improve the community college student experience, we must identify and address those junctures and listen to what students themselves have to say about what will help them maintain and increase momentum.

Keeping students’ voices and experiences at the center of reform plans can enhance the legitimacy of proposed reforms, their effectiveness, and their sustainability. 

In the News: Graduates of For-Profit Colleges Earn Less Than Other Grads

"Students who get degrees at for-profit institutions earn significantly lower post-college incomes than students who earn degrees from not-for-profit and public institutions, according to a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Student Survey, the study examined the earnings of students who entered certificate and associate-degree programs for the first time in the 2003-4 academic year. The authors concluded that 'students at for-profit institutions do not benefit more and often benefit less from their education than apparently similar students at not-for-profit and public institutions.'"

Read more from The Chronicle of Higher Education or from the National Association for College Admissions Counseling "Admitted" blog.