Summer academy for best, brightest
Honors Center reaches out to high school students

The Summer Academy of Excellence, instituted this year and anticipated to grow and expand in the coming years, is a component of UNM’s plan to recruit and retain freshmen.

“We had programs in place to assist students with developmental difficulties. We had bridge programs to help students overcome deficiencies before coming to the University, but we didn’t have anything to attract and reach out to motivated, highly- prepared students,” says Peter White, dean of University College.
The Summer Academy of Excellence fills that need. Once funding was secured from the President’s Office and from College of Pharmacy Dean William Hadley, White approached Rosalie Otero, director of the Honors Center.

“We want to attract New Mexico’s best and brightest high school students to UNM. We can explain to them the benefits of coming here, and, perhaps recruit them to the honors program,” she says.

Otero asked the honors faculty to submit course proposals for the program and she decided those courses that best represent UNM and the honors program. “We also wanted the courses that would be most attractive to the students in that population,” Otero says.

Although the original plan was to offer four courses, the fledgling program experienced low enrollment this summer because they were unable to get materials out to the schools early, so just one course is being offered. Changing the Shape of Ourselves: Shaping the Changes in Our Future is being taught by four honors faculty, Ursula Shepherd, whose focus is on biology and cloning; Leslie Donovan, metamorphosis; Celia Lopez-Chavez, human rights; and Ron Reichel, the changing universe, physical and metaphysical.

Eight students, from Manzano, Del Norte and Eldorado High Schools, are enrolled and receiving three credit hours. Some recently graduated from high school, others will be seniors in the fall. Students who apply are required to have a 3.2 GPA. They are asked to write an essay about why they’re interested in the program and are required to get a letter of recommendation from a high school instructor.

“We are getting highly-motivated students used to college work at the honors level. They are receiving a college experience before starting at the University.” Rosalie Otero

“The plan is to have 45 to 50 students in the program. We would like to be able to recruit statewide, but that requires that we make additional arrangements with dorms and special activities following the academic program,” says Otero. White says statewide participation should be instituted in a couple years.

Otero sees the Summer Academy of Excellence as a good fit with other freshman programs. “We are getting highly-motivated students used to college work at the honors level. They are receiving a college experience before starting at the University,” she says.

Like other freshman programs, the honors program emphasizes its commitment to mentoring students on a personal level. “Our students work individually with mentors and professors,” she says.

White says that this program also responds to faculty concerns that UNM wasn’t attracting more advanced students. Otero says, “We offered 25 Regents Scholarships this year and only had 15 accept. Through this program, we will demonstrate to students and parents the benefit of an undergraduate education at UNM before they’ve made the decision to go elsewhere. We know we can meet their needs,” she says.

As a parent of three UNM students – an incoming freshman, a junior and a Ph.D. student – White sees his children’s strengths and weaknesses and, because his children are representative of so many UNM students, he sees the range of students UNM is charged to educate. One of his sons had the advantage of taking UNM courses while a high school student. He sees the advantage of concurrent enrollment.

He says, “The Summer Academy of Excellence helps to make UNM a better undergraduate school while also reaching out to the community.”