Developing an intervention bridging program for at-risk students before the traditional pre-freshman summer program

College Student Journal, March, 2007 by Robert S. Moore, Melissa Moore, Paul W. Grimes, Meghan J. Millea, Mark Lehman, Allison Pearson, Pearson Liddell, M. Kathleen Thomas

This paper reports the development and implementation of a multi-year program targeting a cohort of at-risk pre-freshmen. The program, called BOSS Camp (Business Opportunities for Success School), was designed to motivate, acculturate and encourage economically disadvantaged pre-freshman to attend college and become business majors. The process of developing, implementing and adapting the BOSS Camp program is described. Program participants report that participation in the Camp has markedly increased their self-confidence and increased intentions to attend college.

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Pre-freshman summer bridge programs have been noted for some time to be instrumental in acculturating and orienting at-risk students to increase success and retention in universities (c.f., Rita and Bacote 2005). Typically, bridge programs are held the summer between their senior year in high school and their freshman year in college. The program will include academic as well as socialization skills necessary for success. Summer bridging programs report higher grades and retention rates for participants than at-risk students that do not participate. Tinto's (1975) Social Integration Theory and Bean's (1980) Student Attrition Model are most commonly cited as the theoretical basis for the development of these programs. In these models, positive experiences with the university and academic preparation prior to beginning the freshman year have positive influences on retention and attitudes.

However, as effective as summer bridge programs are, they assist only at-risk students that are already accepted and enrolled in higher education. As Reed (1978) points out in his discussion of best practices guidelines, pre-freshman programs need to be established as far back over time as possible in order to imprint the expected behavior and anticipated academic challenges required to allow time for the preparation of academic skills. Additionally, Kahn and Nauta (2001) suggest that though confidence in one's academic ability is modified during the college experience, it is primarily formed prior to college and is an important predictor of persistence. In this paper we describe an ongoing bridging program that started in the 9th grade of the college freshman cohort class of 2007 of at-risk students in Mississippi.

BOSS Camp

BOSS Camp is one of several camps funded though a United States Department of Education Gear Up Grant in Mississippi. The Gear Up grant seeks to follow a high school student cohort which represents the 2007 incoming university freshman class. The grants used to cover the BOSS Camp costs are on a year to year competitively funded nature

An overriding principle of the Gear Up program is to involve as many at-risk students as possible from economically disadvantaged counties over three years in a university immersion experience. BOSS Camp intentions incorporate the overall goal and include a concerted effort to provide at-risk students a taste of university life and exposure to skills that are needed to excel in the university environment as well as a chosen career (e.g., Durodoye and Bodley 1997; Green, McCord, and Westbrooks 2005).

Based on the aforementioned literature regarding at-risk students, the camp was designed to 1) increase interest in attending college, 2) provide exposure to the university academic environment, 3) advise campers of the importance of preparing for college, and, 4) increase camper's self-confidence through interactions with multiple facets of the university environment. We sought to achieve these goals through a series of intertwined, academically oriented modules designed to present university and life experiences students would likely encounter during their college career. We present an overview of the conduct of these camps as a potential template for others.

Year One

The initial Request for Proposals (RFP) was announced in January of 2004 for camps to be held that summer. Seven faculty members were recruited from within the business college to participate. All of the faculty principal investigators (PIs) are recognized as effective instructors. The PIs created a 4-day immersion program. The program included detailed modules depicting representative activities for a class of 30 students. Each of the activities was based on current class pedagogy of the faculty members. The emphasis on presenting material that is actually part of current curriculum was intended to expose the campers to an appropriate level of intellectual rigor (Reed 1978).

The grant for BOSS Camp 2004 was awarded in late March. Over the next 2 months the PIs developed materials for the camp and recruited three current high school teachers from targeted schools to; 1) reinforce key module objectives, and, 2) ensure module materials appropriately challenged students' abilities. The original RFP conditions included that all campers were to come from economically disadvantaged communities, no fee was to be charged for camp attendance, admission be based on first-come, first-served, and camp was to be held over the break between school years. To serve the overall goal of the Gear Up grant regarding tracking a cohort, the campers themselves were to be incoming high school freshman (9th Grade). Because our camp was designed as a day camp, we chose to target at-risk students that lived within 50 miles of the university.