{"id":125196,"date":"2020-07-20T10:40:40","date_gmt":"2020-07-20T16:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=125196"},"modified":"2022-02-10T14:19:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T21:19:01","slug":"pre-collegiate-program-prepares-students-for-brighter-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=125196","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Collegiate Program prepares students for brighter futures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Pre-Collegiate Health Pathway students show off the UCCS senior banner in preparation for the annual systemwide Olympiad.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Many middle and high school students aspire to go to\ncollege. But when asked if they feel ready to tackle college life, less than\nhalf of America\u2019s high school students say yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately for students in the Pikes Peak region, UCCS\u2019 Pre-Collegiate\nDevelopment Program can get them there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UCCS\u2019 Pre-Collegiate Support and Success Center is one of\nthree programs in the University of Colorado system that prepares middle school\nand high school students for the rigors of college life. With a focus on\nfirst-generation and military-affiliated students and students in the academic\nmiddle, the program helps bridge the gap between high school and college by\ncombining academic advising, financial aid guidance, interpersonal skill\ndevelopment and career exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur mission is to empower students to go beyond and break the cycle of graduating from high school and then going straight into the workforce,\u201d said interim executive director Anthony Trujillo. \u201cThe Pre-Collegiate Program gives families and students the tools they need to continue their education and continue to do better for themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students are able to take dually enrolled classes at UCCS to earn college credit.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 500 middle and high school students are currently enrolled\nin the program, many of whom are recruited before the ninth grade and persist\nwith the program until graduation. In addition to visiting college campuses\naround the state and earning college credit through dual enrollment, students\nchoose to explore one of five career pathways: business, education and human services,\nengineering and technology, health and humanities and arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe set the pathways up to mirror some of the academic experiences they could explore here at UCCS,\u201d Trujillo said. \u201cWe want to give them an idea of where these pathways could take them professionally. We want to expand their idea of what the possibilities are within the field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data reaching back to the program’s 1987 inception shows that it works. In 2019, 100 percent of the program’s graduating seniors stated that they planned to enroll in college after their high school graduation, and they all applied to UCCS. More than 40 percent of them enrolled for the fall semester. They persisted to the spring 2019 semester at a rate of 90 percent \u2013 significantly higher than that for UCCS’ first-year students not affiliated with the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, due to the COVID pandemic, things have changed since the spring semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things look different for program participants this summer. Rising tenth, eleventh and twelfth-grade students are normally invited to a Summer Academic Institute on the UCCS campus, where students participate in dually enrolled courses for college credit and take SAT and PSAT preparation courses. Based on their chosen career pathway, students take field trips \u2013 health students to Anschutz Medical Campus, human services students to the Care and Share headquarters \u2013 to experience what life looks like for industry professionals. This summer, the program cancelled all in-person programming to comply with public health guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But students have still been able to prepare for college \u2013 remotely.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students in the program’s human services pathway visit Care and Share Food Bank.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany of our students\u2019 parents were essential workers who lost jobs and positions. Some of our students had to go to work themselves,\u201d said Andi Diamond, academic services program director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe recognized the pressure they have in their own lives, and\nwe made the Summer Academic Institute optional this year. We were expecting\nmaybe 50 to 100 students. But we had an overwhelming response back. Students\nwanted to continue with the program, and their parents and families did as\nwell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The office worked to move the program to remote learning software\nand offer it free of charge, to reduce the financial burden on families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with so much uncertainty about the fall semester, UCCS\u2019 transition coaches \u2013 undergraduate students who offer mentorship to program participants \u2013 have hosted roundtable discussions for their mentees. Students who enrolled in the program had the opportunity to ask about how COVID-19 changed their coaches\u2019 academic and social lives, how they navigated challenges, homesickness, culture shock and other topics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe transition coaches are experts of their own experience,\u201d\nTrujillo said. \u201cIt\u2019s very much a peer-to-peer mentoring situation for all the\nattendees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The office sees their transition coaches as playing a key\nrole in the program\u2019s mission: to help build a sense of community at UCCS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany of our transition coaches are Colorado Springs natives\nor grew up in the area,\u201d said Jessica George, academic services program\ncoordinator. \u201cThey can point our students to resources both on- and off-campus.\nIf these students do decide to come to UCCS, they already have that built-in\nsense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for Diamond, the work is all about the future \u2013 creating\nan impact on students\u2019 lives that will carry forward over generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe recognize that success can and should look different for\neach student,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cWe always want to make sure students are working\nto better themselves, no matter what is in line for them after high school. It\nhas a generational impact for them \u2013 it impacts their families and their communities\nand the families they will have in the future.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe love fostering that growth and progress-oriented mindset for students to improve their skills, to know themselves and to make their world a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the Pre-Collegiate Program online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 500 local middle and high school students are benefiting from academic advising, financial aid guidance, career exploration and mentorship \u2013 everything they need to feel empowered to earn a college degree. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":125248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,417],"tags":[332,186,357],"class_list":["post-125196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-strategic-plan","tag-more-news","tag-pre-collegiate-development-program","tag-retention-graduation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Pre-Collegiate-Cropped-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-wzi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125196"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125252,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125196\/revisions\/125252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/125248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}