by Brooke Bunch
Bromley Hall was the summer
home to 14 incoming Ohio University freshman — Kristin
Barnes, Ian Butcher, Jessica Cross, Rachel Crowder, Tiffani
Gilliam, Aaron Harris, Alexis Hines, Laporsha King, Kendra
Michel, Rose Sharpe, Joshua Snyder, Allison Stigall, Whitney
Waldon and Jeremy Wright — as part of the Summer
Enrichment Program sponsored by the OU-COM’s Center of
Excellence for Multicultural Medicine. Summer enrichment is an
important program — one of several at the college — that helps
initiate academically fruitful college careers and defined
career paths for disadvantaged students at the university.
The recently graduated high
school seniors arrived on campus June 24 to begin the six-week
program focused on introducing them to the health and premedical
curricula at Ohio.
“These are incoming students
who are interested in preprofessional or prehealth curricula,”
says Denise Hughes-Tafen, then precollege and
communications coordinator.
(Hughes-Tafen left the college in August.) “The program
exposes them to all areas of college life and helps prepare them
for the fall.”
According to Hughes-Tafen, the
Summer Enrichment Program is primarily for students who are
considered disadvantaged, whether it be due to ethnicity,
education or economic reasons.
The program offers courses in
chemistry, biology, mathematics, oral and written
communications, and computer science. While participating in the
program, the students also take classes to assist them with time
management skills, research methods and college orientation.
“The objective is to prepare
them for college,” says Hughes-Tafen.
As part of the program,
students receive assistance with registration and tutoring. The
students receive five hours of tuition-paid college credit, as
well as a daily stipend to cover expenses.
The students have the
opportunity to build relationships, not just with each other,
but with faculty and staff from the College of Arts and Sciences
and the College of Health and Human Services as well as the
college.
“One of the advantages they
have is that they can form their own little group, their own
little family and have a support network already established,”
says Hughes-Tafen. “That can be particularly important for the
first year when it can be difficult in an all new environment.”
“It was a
pleasure and a privilege to work with the students,” says
Ingrid Auguste-Keesey, interim precollege and communications
coordinator.
Auguste-Keesey was hired to help Hughes-Tafen recruit students
and to help set up the program. She’s been involved with the
program since April.
“Many of the
students have told us that the Summer Enrichment program has
helped them immensely. They feel less stress about being
freshmen, because they are now familiar with the campus.”
Rose Sharpe and
Whitney Waldon agreed exactly with that.
Both are 17 year
olds from the Dayton area. Sharpe, though undecided, is leaning
toward speech, hearing and language pathology or dietetics.
Waldon has set her sights on becoming a pediatrician.
Both found the
summer a very enriching experience.
Waldon, a graduate of Dunbar
High School in Dayton, says she “got a feel for college
classes.”
“High school moves at a slower
pace. In summer enrichment, classes were paced as they are in
college. The oral communication and learning strategies classes
helped me to be a better writer, and I was exposed to learning
and studying strategies I was not aware of. It was great
opportunity to get ahead,” says Waldon.
She says her participation in
the Ohio University Health Careers Access Network (OU-HCAN)
program and visits to the university influenced her decision to
attend Ohio.
“Tyree Winters and
Channon Bishop, our resident assistants, were really helpful
during the program. They helped us to schedule our classes for
the fall — I was stressed out about that,” she says. Winters is
a third-year medical student and Bishop is an undergraduate
senior.
“I’ve wanted to be a doctor all
my life. My family has always wanted to me to be successful.”
“I’m grateful that I was able
to experience this; I loved it,” says Sharpe, a graduate of
Trotwood Madison High School in Trotwood. “It’s a difficult
transition from high school to college. Summer enrichment helped
me become acclimated to different resources and the college
curriculum.
“My learning skills class stood
out to me. It’s “learning how to learn” and how to study. That
was my best experience.”
Now after almost three weeks of
classes — including Chemistry 151; Math 115; First Aid 227;
Social Work 101 — Waldon knows the OU-COM program made it all
easier.
“Especially chemistry,” Waldon
says. “Most of the material I’m studying now I had during summer
enrichment. I also got to know the campus better; I knew where I
was going the first day of school! The program gave me more
confidence in my ability to get things done.”
Auguste-Keesey says instilling
confidence and paving the way to a successful college experience
is foremost for the program.
“We had a great
group of students this year. They were bright, mature and had a
great sense of what they wanted to achieve academically,” says
Auguste-Keesey.
- 30 -
News for
the week of Sept 19 –
Sept 24
