The Victoria College is offering summer programs to help out high school students who are not college-ready and middle school students who excel in class.
VC received a grant from the Texas Higher Education Board that will allow it to offer a program called Summer Scholars to upcoming 11th-graders.

“It is a four-week program, and what we will be doing is getting them college-ready,” said Shaunyale Canada, high school programs director for VC.

The program will run from July 9 to Aug. 3.

To participate, a student must have scored below the 2200 range, which the state considers college-ready, on their TAKS scores.

“They will receive a lot of tutoring, academic support and help to prepare them for when they take the test again to reach that college-readiness level.”

Canada said there will be a pre-test and post-test at the beginning and end of the program to measure the students’ improvements.

“We will also offer them some incentives. Some students, if their score has gone up, will be eligible to receive a voucher to take a dual credit class with us,” Canada said.

She said there is a $25 enrollment incentive based on student attendance. They also are discussing offering gas cards to participating students, which can help students who may be coming from outside of Victoria.

“Along with the academic support, they’re going to receive information on financial aid and about college in general. This really is just getting the awareness about college out there and creating that college-going culture.”

Canada said the Victoria school district has identified students who have made scores that qualify them for the program, and VC is mailing invitations to them. Anyone else interested is encouraged to contact Canada for more information.

Canada said VC is trying to close the education gaps and eliminate the demand for developmental education.

Another program to address students in developmental classes is the Summer Bridge program. Canada said this program is focused on graduating high school seniors who scored low enough on their THEA test to put them in developmental education for college.

The first session of the program will be June 11 to July 12 and July 9 to Aug. 9 for the second session.

She said the students will retest and see if their scores go up so they can enroll in regular-level college classes.

VC also will be providing enrichment programs for seventh graders. The program Tex-PREP is a math and science enrichment program for seventh-graders who show potential in those areas, Canada said. To qualify, students must have letters of recommendation and have at least an 85 average in math or science. The program is free, but the students will have to provide their own transportation and lunch.

Friday is the deadline to register for the seven-week program that will run from June 11 to July 26. There is room for 25 students.

Targeted middle schools are in Victoria, Port Lavaca and Seadrift.

Information from: www.thevictoriaadvocate.com

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under College Grant. Tags: College, Education, Financial Aid, Grant, Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.