21st Century Scholar

Last week I attended the NACAC (National Association for College Admissions Counselors) annual conference in Denver. It was my first time attending the conference and I loved it—and not just because I woke up to snow one morning and the other morning had the most phenomenal mini-doughnuts at a funky breakfast-all-day joint called Jelly. I [...]

Today is the last day of SummerTIME, the Pullias Center’s annual intensive four-week writing and college knowledge program for first-generation, low-income Los Angeles-area students starting college in the fall. The entire SummerTIME crew—Pullias staff members, grad and undergrad students, college writing instructors, and lots of volunteers—works diligently to prepare these students for the academic, social, [...]

The Pullias Center is currently hosting its annual SummerTIME Writing Program, and I have had the opportunity to observe more 14 classrooms over the past month. What I noticed about the students initially was consistent with my previous SummerTIME experiences. Hairstyles are not noticeably different from the 2011 cohort. Skinny jeans are the jeans of [...]

Want to read more about how to teach writing to college-bound students? Check out the blog post here!

by Lisa Garcia SummerTIME—CHEPA’s four-week intensive summer writing and college knowledge program for rising college freshmen—is in full swing. All 90 students meet with a CHEPA staff member, student, or campus volunteer to review their financial aid notification (FAN) letters. Most of our students are well prepared financially to transition to a two- or four-year [...]

Not my kind of pop!: Waiting for the police to show up (+ a couple of financial aid notes) This post would probably be a bit different if there wasn’t someone sitting in front of my house smoking some kind of drug. This is really happening as I write this at 8:20 a.m. on a [...]

CHEPA’s SummerTIME program is featured on the USC Rossier School of Education’s homepage. Check out our awesome students!

David Bowie & Queen remind me to calm down—it’s SummerTIME I volunteer with this really cool program called SummerTIME run by the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at USC. I work with the recently graduated high school seniors who will become college freshmen in just a few short weeks. The program helps them focuses [...]

by Randy Clemens The history of education reform is the history of trends. Movements come and go and then come back again, oftentimes refashioned with new rhetoric or different twists. Community-based reforms, which are becoming increasingly popular, are no different. The recurrence of social movements in this instance, however, may be beneficial. Jane Addams and [...]

We have just concluded another year of SummerTIME.  Several years ago I was struck by how unprepared our public high school students are for college.  Many of them graduate from high school with high grade point averages, and they gain entrance to a UC or CSU and have to take remedial courses.  They also are [...]