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Tucson-area high school counselors worked with the UA to build a program to help students graduate and prepare for college.

By University Communications
July 22, 2008

The University of Arizona's Office of Student Retention, in collaboration with high school guidance counselors from the Tucson Unified School District, Sunnyside Unified School District and Immaculate Heart High School, are sponsoring a one-week summer experience titled "High School to College: Preparing for Success."

The program works to make sure students' college experiences more closely match their expectations so they're less likely to drop out.

The effort grew out of small working group made up of high school counselors and UA retention staff and academic advisers. The group discussed barriers they observed that impeded high school graduation and college enrollment, one of them being the transition between high school and college.

"We found that students needed to adjust their expectations of college so that their actual experience more closely matched those expectations. This would then lead to higher rates of success in college," said Arezu Corella, academic advising coordinator with the UA department of psychology and the chair of the High School to College summer program.

In 2006, the working group, which was assembled by the UA Office of Retention, decided to create a day of dialogue and open up the discussion to interested counselors in the area with the idea of creating a plan to address these barriers.

The result? One hundred student advocates showed up. By 2007 the group had devised a program to pilot the newly developed High School to College summer experience. Thirteen students entering their sophomore year were recruited from participating Tucson high schools and enrolled into the program.

After the pilot program, the working group invited the 13 students back to campus for a day in the fall.

“We learned that they had significantly changed their behavior toward high school as result of the information they had learned during the High School to College summer program,” Corella said.

This year, the summer program welcomes 56 students, who will experience weeklong high school to college training that will take place on the UA campus this week.

The result of the pilot group, the collaboration between high school guidance counselors, college academic advisers and retention staff, is a program that is tailored to address two audiences.

Students getting ready to enter their sophomore year of high school are enrolled in part one. Part two is for students about to enter their senior year of high school.

"We learned in 2007 that it was important to address the students at a time when we could affect the student’s ability to make good choices at the beginning of high school but also that we needed to build upon that during their pivotal senior year," Corella added.

There is a $60 enrollment fee for the program, in which high school students learn what it takes to be successful in college.

Activities include learning the difference between high school and college, learning effective study strategies, exploration into UA degree programs, step-by-step guides through the UA application process, classes on writing effectively and a class that focuses on demystifying the college experience.