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New Eastern summer program gives high-school students a jumpstart on their future
Hands-on college classroom experience
SPONSORED BY EASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY
The curriculum for Pre-College is fun in and of itself.
The core of the program is its weeklong courses, taught by full-time, tenure-track Eastern faculty members. The subjects offered are diverse in scope and emphasis, giving students a comprehensive menu of potential college majors and specialties. These are not your typical general elective AP-credit classes.
For instance, 2024’s first weeklong session (July 14-19) students can take classes like Resilience: The Science of Grit and Overcoming, a course where they will conduct mini experiments to better understand the biological, psychological, and sociocultural sources of human strength; or they can enroll in a Creative Writing Workshop and dive into poetry and fiction.
When Eastern Connecticut State University designed its first Pre-College Summer for high-school-aged students to get a preview of university life, administrators had one directive when it came to the students’ living arrangements during the weeklong program: They had to stay on campus.
Part of the reason was to make it more stress-free for parents bringing their kids to Eastern. Another factor was to showcase the iconic and historic Willimantic campus, the second oldest in the Connecticut State University System, and its welcoming accommodations. But mainly, the faculty wanted these students to get more than just exposure to college-level courses. In an increasingly remote world where we work, shop, and play more and more through our devices, they wanted these youths to experience college up close and in person.
In college, students who are confident in their own voices and can tap into their own creativity are the ones most ready to thrive.”
“We wanted it to be one community,” says Chris Drewry, director of Co-Curricular Academic Programming at Eastern and coordinator of Pre-College Summer. “We wanted them to interact one on one and in groups. We wanted them to bond and make friends that are going to last a lifetime.”
Community is a key part of the Pre-College Summer, which is intended to both enable potential college students to explore the possibilities for their future and provide memories and relationships they can carry with them no matter what they choose to do after high school.
“This is a testing ground for college,” says Drewry. “But the kids also have a lot of fun.”
So if you’re a parent with a high-school-aged child, especially one entering their junior or senior year, and think they might be curious about college, you can apply to Eastern’s 2024 Pre-College Summer program here. For more information, visit www.easternct.edu/pre-college-summer or contact Chris Drewry at DrewryC@easternct.edu.
“As a high-school student, I would 100 percent recommend this program,” says Olivia Arcari, who participated in last summer’s poetry writing workshop. “It’s so welcoming and you learn so much… I feel like I’ve grown as a person and become more confident. It made me really excited for college.”
Of course, college is about much more than grades, transcripts, and preparing for the workforce. It’s also about expanding your horizons, pursuing your passions, and discovering yourself and who you want to be. And an important part of that is surrounding yourself with new people with similar interests and diverse backgrounds and experiences.
When students first arrive for Pre-College Summer on Sunday evening, they are greeted by faculty, move into the dorms, say goodbye to their parents, and then go through orientation followed by a pizza party.
“The group was very quiet,” says Nicole Santoro, graduate intern and resident advisor for students at the first Pre-College Summer session last year. “They were all really tired. They went to bed at 9:30pm.”
“Students gain academic confidence as they engage with hands-on, engaging projects in their classes,” says Professor Dan Donaghy, who teaches the program’s Creative Writing Workshop. Through the class, students learn to see the value of their life experiences and the possibilities of their creative sides as they form a nurturing, supportive community that encourages others in the class to do the same.
“Students in my workshop gain experience with a type of writing that’s key to future success,” says Donaghy. “In college, students who are confident in their own voices and can tap into their own creativity are the ones most ready to thrive.”
During the second session (July 21-26) students can explore the realm of public health and the “science and art” of preventing disease and promoting health in Health Heroes 101: Unleashing Creativity to Conquer Diseases; or take Intro to Filmmaking, where they will study the artform, learn about professional opportunities in the industry, and even shoot their own short film.
(For a full list of Pre-College programs with further details, click here.)
The courses are designed to be hands-on and immersive while not producing the stress (and expense) of being for college credit. But the students will walk away with the knowledge and experience; something to bolster their college applications and resume; and a capstone project, film, story, or paper that they can add to their portfolios.
“We enroll them as active students, and it’s something they can put on their transcript,” says Drewry. “It also gives them a tangible project, college-level work, that they can use.”
Lifelong friends and memories
Classes started the next morning and students began working side by side. During breaks and in the evenings, they’d participate in video game tournaments, sit around the fire pit, and play yard games. Throughout these activities and in counselor-facilitated discussions, they’d bond and talk about philosophy or current events. Santoro and Drewry both noticed that as the week progressed, the students seemed to open up and grow closer and closer to each other.
“By Thursday night, they all stayed up until at least 11:30pm,” says Santoro. “And when they all left the next morning, there were tears. Many of them exchanged phone numbers so they could hang out after the program. It was really exciting and heartwarming to see this group of kids that came from all over the state and other states build these bonds.”
It was really exciting and heartwarming to see this group of kids that came from all over the state and other states build these bonds.”
