School Summer Programs

School summer programs are not new to the general public or system at large, but special school summer programs, and I do not emphasize special as in “special” classes, are an asset not many know about in specific terms. One school summer program at a community college in northern California, for instance, has changed the lives of needful individuals for the last seven years. Since its conception by a great program director in 1998, the Jump Start program has benefited over 200 students from the neighboring “feeder” high schools.

Taking applications from seven high schools in the Bay Area, Jump Start accepts 30 (each summer) of the most needful, the most at-risk in this case (with low g.p.a.s and low self-esteem, as well as a low opinion of school and learning in general). The decisions to accept are based on the transcripts of the student, yes, but more importantly, are considered by way of entry essays the students write, essays which include information and reasoning for what participating in summer school programs would do for them.

The six-week program includes orientation, diagnostic/intake sessions, classes four days a week, study and resources every other Friday, and field studies on the alternate Fridays. During orientation, students are given texts, school and study supplies, and necessary tools—such as zip disks, disposable cameras, blank books for journaling, and dictionaries. During the diagnostic sessions, the participants write an hour-long essay on a chosen prompt, and take a preliminary math test for the second hour. These two diagnostics serve to identify like learners with similar abilities, so that the group of thirty can be divided in two—making for smaller, more feasible classrooms of 15 students in each.

The classes are scheduled, then, for groups A and B (with neither A nor B the superior or inferior group). By the end of each day Monday through Thursday, both groups have attended four classes—Math, English, Photo Shop, and Study Skills/Career Explorations. These courses provide a balance for the left- and right-brained skills practices, for creative and technical catharsis and application, for empowerment of future study efforts, and for interpersonal and real-world ventures.

The field studies and resource/workshops, on alternate Fridays, reinforce the intellectual progress, the emotional development, and the social skill-building the students have otherwise missed, lacked, or neglected in the past.

The outcomes are highly positive: the students, who began on day one with big dark coats they refused to remove, lexicon of curses and insults, and hearts full of resentment (at life), competition (of the street variety), and insecurity, reveal in evaluation forms how much they have learned, how much freedom and novelty they have been subject to, and how much self-esteem they have acquired. The coats have come off, the swear words are replaced with poetry and laughter, and the competitions have become camraderies.

And these special needs students, slated for gang life, prison, substance abuse, and death are some of the most intelligent, creative, and heartfelt and funny characters in the area. They just had a different start, a different upbringing, and/or a differing approach and attitude to the whole school summer programs thing in particular and the school thing in general!