by Rebecca Stussman ‘12

The end of the school year marks a time of great freedom and relief. Summer break provides students with a well-deserved opportunity to relax and have fun without the threat of looming deadlines or disheartening grades. Yet amidst this season of refreshment, many students, especially rising seniors, choose to increase their academic experience and enroll in precollege programs in interests ranging from writing to biology.

Current junior Alyssa Lesho first discovered the benefits of pre-college programs last summer when she participated in an on-campus summer course for high school students at Columbia University in New York City. Lesho attended classes in her chosen focus of Advanced Creative Writing and found her experience extremely rewarding, providing both a newfound sense of freedom and valuable insights into college life.

“I spent three weeks in New York City, writing and exploring Manhattan. I was entirely independent. It was the best three weeks of my life,” said Lesho, who looks forward to attending another on-campus pre-college program this summer, this time at Cornell University. At Cornell, Lesho will focus not in Creative Writing but rather in Computer Science, a major which she feels will provide her with more stable career opportunities after college. Lesho will also have the opportunity to earn college credit for her class work, an option that was not available in her program at Columbia last summer.

Like Lesho, juniors Brian Fanelli and Stephanie Golding look to gain college experience by participating in pre-college programs, although they will attend the more local University of Maryland in its Young Scholars and Jump Start Programs, respectively. Fanelli, who chose to live on campus in Maryland dorms for the duration of his three-week course in biotechnology, decided to participate in Maryland’s Young Scholars program to better prepare for college and learn about his intended major.

“[This jump start program] will show colleges that I have experience with campus life and it gets me ahead by giving me credits for a class I will take in college,” said Fanelli. “I want to learn about biology and biochemistry, which I find really interesting.”

Like Fanelli, Golding’s interests lie in the biological field, but she has a more medical focus, and will participate in Maryland’s weeklong Jump Start program in biomedical science. “[The program] will help me get into college and also it’s really interesting. I’m into medicine, and I’m planning on doing pre-med in college … so I want to learn about [medicine and biology].”

Eric Johnson, assistant director of Maryland’s Young Scholars Program, thinks the greatest benefits of precollege programs are the preparation they offer into the actual college experience. “The Young Scholars Program is designed to challenge students academically and to prepare them for the time they spend outside of the classroom,” said Johnson. “This program allows them to demonstrate [their] potential while learning to exercise good time management and to cope with a schedule that isn’t completely dictated by their parents or their school.”