Note to Editors: On July 20, photographers and reporters are invited to the San Juan Learning Center, 3164 34th St., from 3-5 p.m. and to the Sunrise Assisted Living Center, 3955 28th St., from 1-5 p.m. where Denver high school students enrolled in CU's pre-collegiate program have been working with kids and seniors this summer. Call Joanna Maes for details, (303) 492-8243.
Dozens of Denver area high school students will complete five weeks of community volunteering and rigorous college preparatory classes at the University of Colorado at Boulder July 20.
The 53 students have worked in small groups at Boulder nursing homes and day care and learning centers as part of CU-Boulder's Pre-Collegiate Development Program. From June 21 to July 23, program participants live in university residence halls with CU-Boulder student counselors, attend rigorous classes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and volunteer every Tuesday afternoon.
The volunteering component was added last summer and has been a tremendous success, according to program director Johanna Maes.
"It's truly a powerful thing we've incorporated into our program," Maes said. "We see a real change in these teenagers from the time they start the program to when they finish. Many of them are surprised at the connections they develop with the nursing home residents and the kids at day care."
This summer, students volunteered at the San Juan Learning Center, Project Yes in Lafayette, the Good Samaritan Center of Boulder, Boulder Day Nursery and the Sunrise Assisted Living Center. July 20 is the last day students will visit the sites, and celebrations are planned.
The goal of the CU-Boulder Pre-Collegiate Program is to help students from select metro area schools succeed in middle school and high school and eventually attend college, preferably at CU. Students can enter the pre-collegiate program as sixth-graders and remain in the program year-round until high school graduation. They come to CU-Boulder in the summers of their junior and senior years of high school.
In the summer 2004 group, five of the students are ranked No. 1 in their respective high school classes. Most program graduates become the first in their family to attend college.
For more information on the CU-Boulder Pre-Collegiate Program, call (303) 492-8243.