JCYC College Access Programs had a fun and busy summer of programming for their middle and high school youth participants! Serving over 3,000 college bound students annually, JCYC College Access Programs held a variety of enriching and academic programming for their youth.
Our High School (HS) Advisors coordinated and held a hybrid Resilient Scholars Summer Program for rising 12th-grade students from Galileo, Burton, and Balboa High Schools. The goal of the summer program was to increase students’ exposure to college and build community with other students, while providing a support system for our students during their senior year in high school. Another goal for this program was to create a sense of belonging in college with tips on how to advocate for themselves and others that might need support in school and other areas of their lives.
Virtual learning also played an important role with this program. Some topics covered via Zoom were College 101, College Essays & Letters of Recommendations, Time-Management, and Civic Engagement, i.e., the importance of voting. The students were taken on a college campus visit to the University of California, Davis (UCD). For some of the students, this was their first time visiting UCD. JCYC ETS Participant from Galileo HS commented, “I like it because it gets me thinking about applying and what to look out for makes me feel more supported as well.”
Our Middle School (MS) Advisors organized two hybrid summer programs, one for San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) participants from MLK Jr., James Lick, and Francisco Middle Schools and the other for Thomas R. Pollicita Middle School in Daly City. The goal was for the participants to learn about TRIO (Educational Talent Search, a.k.a. ETS) program services available to them in high school in order to increase their college awareness in a fun way.
Both San Francisco and Daly City schools went to the San Francisco Aquarium where they could see, feel, hear and learn about marine life. The participants also visited college campuses, including Sonoma State University and San Francisco State University, to increase the college-going culture among our students.
JCYC College Access Programs’ fun and exciting summer did not stop there. JCYC College Access Programs’ Upward Bound (UB) program held its first in-person summer program in two years! A total of 33 students participated in our five-week commuter summer program at San Francisco State University, where students took various courses in English, Math, Lab Science, and even Lego Engineering. At the end of each week, the students had the chance to participate in a college campus tour at one of the many colleges in and around the Bay Area. In these five weeks, our students visited UC Santa Cruz, CSU East Bay, Sonoma State University, UC Davis, and Stanford University.
After the commuter portion of the summer program, our students had a chance to experience college dorm life during our residential week at San Jose State University. 15 students participated this summer, placed in one of four different Residential Advisor (RA) groups, and got a taste of what college life will be like. In addition to continuing their summer classes, students participated in a range of different activities, such as nightly activities around campus, the UB Olympics, and a UB Dance at the end of the week.
Overall, summer program was a great success, with many of our students expressing how much they enjoyed the summer and how much it helped them grow and come out of their shells. Students who at first were shy and reserved ended up forming new friendships with students from different schools and even expressed how much they enjoyed and had fun with the classes offered. This is really all a testament to all of the hard work that was done by the advisors, instructors, and RAs.
For more information about JCYC College Access Programs, go to https://jcyc.org, or call Program Director of JCYC College Access Programs Gina Gutierrez at (415) 921-5537.