A recent report from the private, nonprofit National Research Council highlights the importance of funding and supporting educational opportunities for Hispanics in the U.S. The report sites high dropout rates and low college enrollment for Hispanics, the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the nation.
For the past four years, Scripps College Summer Academy has been assisting high potential, underrepresented students, including Latinas, succeed in high school and prepare for entrance into college. The Summer Academy has had many successes, as reported in The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education. The article, “Girls of Color Realizing the Dream,” was featured in the December 19, 2005, issue of the national publication.
Sylvia Ruiz, director of the Summer Academy, describes the program as “confronting the issues the girls encounter in their daily lives, empowering them to return to their families, friends, and communities as agents of change.”
Last spring, the Summer Academy witnessed the 13 students who participated in the inaugural year of Summer Academy graduate from high school. All of them were accepted for admission into prestigious schools across the nation, including Scripps, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, and UCLA.
The Scripps College Summer Academy residential program is open to young women from underserved high schools in the greater Los Angeles area who will have completed the 9th or 10th grade by the start of the program. The program provides young women with the opportunity to experience what it is like to live and study at a private, liberal arts institution. The program is intended to further the participants’ academic preparation by introducing them to the four major areas of study examined at a liberal arts college—fine arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences—within the context of an exploration of race, class, and gender.
There is no cost to participants enrolled in the Summer Academy program; Scripps College pays all costs for program materials and activities. The program is supported in part by grants from the Beynon Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, and support from the Scripps College President’s Office. Past donors include the James Irvine Foundation, the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, the Mericos Foundation, and the Washington Mutual Foundation.