One of the things we want to look at in our assessment is if students from low income or diverse backgrounds are as likely to opt into LEAP as they are regular summer session, and the same statistic for students who have to complete a summer session. I’m still not sure if I see a problem with the fact that LEAP is not designed with any population, other than first time first year students, in mind. That will probably be helped as we work through the assessments and see if it better serves one population over another. Currently I lean towards not having a problem with it because part of LEAP is that students become familiar with the college atmosphere and specifically with Penn State, learning about the resources and how to get access to them. This clearly is more beneficial to students who have no experience with college before that time and who need that experience.
This summer I am also working with SCOPE, a program through the Multicultural Programs Office in the College of Education. SCOPE is designed as a program for rising high school juniors from multicultural backgrounds who wish to pursue a degree in education at Penn State. Students apply and some are interviewed for about 20 spots in the program. The most interesting thing about the application process, in my opinion, is that finances are considered. The directors want to make sure that the students they accept are going to be able to afford Penn State because they don’t want to have a student fall in love with this university, and two years later find out they are not going to be able to attend, or even worse, one or two or three years into their Penn State education find out that they cannot afford it. This is an amazing opportunity for any student; attend Penn State for four weeks, take a SAT prep course, get taught college study skills, and get credit for an English class, all for free. This is an incredible experience for me to work with a more diverse population and adjust the type of support I give to those students as they navigate their first college experience.