Summit Grows As It Prepares Students for College

MORGANTOWN – College Summit, the nationwide program aimed at raising the college-going rate for low-income students, continues to grow in West Virginia.

Now in its fifth year here, College Summit gathers high school students on college campuses over the summer before their senior year.

For four days, students sleep in college dormitories and eat in the cafeterias. And for four days, they attend rap sessions to help them overcome the idea that they aren’t college material. They work with writing coaches who help them draft and polish personal statements. They meet one on one with college counselors to complete college applications and financial aid forms.

“These kids are getting the same type of resources that the most affluent kids would have,” said College Summit Director of Development Randy Shillingburg.

The following fall they go back to their schools, ahead of the game and trained to serve as peer leaders with their fellow students.

College Summit is holding seven workshops across the state this summer, up from five last year, and training about 260 peer leaders from 21 high schools in 11 counties – ultimately reaching 1,900 seniors this coming year.

The program’s success is clear in its national numbers of a 79 percent college enrollment rate, compared with 46 percent for students from the same income level.

College Summit works, many say, because it helps students believe they can go to college then gives them the tools to make it happen. And that belief comes through College Summit’s very personal approach, such as the writing sessions.

At the College Summit gathering at West Virginia University last week, writing coach Frances Bennett worked with groups of about five in a series of sessions over the four days. The students wrote freely about themselves and their hopes and ambitions and then discussed those in the group.

One student initially wrote about her compassion for animals and about being a vegetarian.

“We saw a lot of humor in what she wrote, and music is very important to her,” Bennett said. “Her pet peeve: when people try to influence her not to do something, when people try to get in the way.”

The group’s questions show the writer what is unique and interesting about her and help her find her voice in a meaningful personal statement, Bennett said.

The rap session and writing sessions can be cathartic, Shillingburg said, especially for students who see themselves as unlikely college material because they’re taking care of a parent or working nights or just don’t have the grades or money.

“What we try to instill in students is that the things that they have been through don’t make them weaker. The things that they have been through make them stronger,” he said.

Nicole Whiting has benefited from that.

A former special education student at George Washington High School in Charleston, Whiting said the program helped her see past her learning disability to a future of her own making.

“Through this program I realized my own aspirations of what I wanted, not what my parents wanted,” she said.

“I got accepted by 10 different schools in the state and could have had almost a full ride to any of them,” she said. “I didn’t know that before I went to College Summit.”

Whiting is now a senior at Marshall University and volunteers for College Summit in the summer.

“With many of these students, this is their first experience with having someone sit down with them one on one and talk about their future and their goals and then telling them that they can do it,” Bennett said.

“Not only does it give them the self confidence that they need, I think it also shows them the specific tools and the steps that they need to take in order to make it happen,” she said. “I think that’s why this program is so special and so unique and so successful.”

Copyright State Journal Corporation Jul 29, 2005