Gearing Up: Teens attend Summer Bridge program

While some teens are staying at home this summer, others are enhancing their college careers early by attending the Summer Bridge program at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.

"This year, there are 162 students participating," said Linda Fossen, associate vice president for Enrollment Planning at the university. The students participating this year are from Los Fresnos, Brownsville, San Benito, Port Isabel, Lyford and Santa Maria.

The funding for Summer Bridge, approximately $200,000, comes through Gear Up, a federally funded program that prepares low-income students to succeed in post-secondary education.

To apply for Summer Bridge, students must be incoming juniors or seniors in the Gear Up program at their high schools. The students are selected for Summer Bridge based on their grades and Compass test scores. The program is free for selected students.

Diana Medina, the Gear Up coordinator and counselor at Hanna High School, said, "First we had a pre-orientation with the students and their parents; then, we looked at their transcripts, grades and Compass scores."

During the five-week program, students are taught by college professors and are guided by mentors and tutors to learn to deal with stress, time and financial management. Workshops are designed to help the students with their future college experiences.

Aldo Mireles and Geraldo Marmowjo, both juniors at Hanna High School, are appreciative of Summer Bridge. "Actually, it helps us get used to the idea of college," said Mireles.

Marmowjo added, "It's a good college experience and gets us used to do work and not procrastinate. It's not the same as high school."

In the summer of 2007 at UTB-TSC, the average GPA for Summer Bridge students was a 3.4 on a 4.0 scale.

For the summer of 2008, the average GPA was a 3.13. The averages are very good for high school students compared to the first time freshman classes at UTB-TSC of 2006 and 2007, which had average GPAs of 2.16 and 2.03, respectively for those years.

Through analysis and research, Fossen has concluded that students who took dual enrollment courses during the school year or went to Summer Bridge graduated at a higher rate, had higher GPAs, were better prepared for college and graduated faster than students who did not.

"It's a lot of hard work, but I think it's gonna be worth it," said Valeria Robledo, a junior at Los Fresnos High School. "It feels like college, maybe not to the full extent, but it's helping me have a good idea of what college is really like."

In fall 2008, the dual enrollment program at UTB-TSC, including Summer Bridge, was the Excelencia in Education national finalist for the 2008 Example of Excelencia in the Associate level.

Fossen said she still wants Summer Bridge to be offered so students have the chance to get ahead in their academic careers.