$270K Teagle grant to continue Skidmore-SEO partnership

Skidmore College and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) will share a $270,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation of New York City to support Phase II of "SEO-Skidmore Connections," a partnership that works to enhance the college readiness of talented but underserved high school students from New York City. 

The funds will support a three-year continuance of a program originally launched in 2009 with a $240,000 Teagle Foundation grant. As with Phase I, in which 36 SEO Scholars participated, the Phase II grant will be split between Skidmore's Pre-College Program, a summer offering under the auspices of the Office of the Dean of Special Programs, and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a community-based educational organization in New York City. SEO assists underserved youth with maximizing their opportunities for college and career success.

"We are delighted to have been awarded this generous grant from the Teagle Foundation," said Auden Thomas, director of summer academic programs and residencies at Skidmore. "The funds will allow us to continue our partnership with SEO and Teagle on this program, which provides a great opportunity to welcome visiting students to Skidmore and serves as an important connection to Skidmore's strategic interests on diversity."

The core of the partnership consists of enrolling 12 SEO students (known as SEO Scholars) over each of the next three years in Skidmore's Summer Pre-College Program in the Liberal and Studio Arts ? an academic program open to high school students that allows them to take college courses, live on campus, and experience college life and learning, followed by lectures and workshop in New York City during the school year. The Phase II goal is to foster engaged learning by students, and improve college readiness and academic performance of SEO scholars and SEO students more generally.

Thomas explained that the next steps would build upon lessons learned in Phase I, focusing on increased social and academic integration of SEO students with the broader Skidmore summer population.

The summer program population at Skidmore is more diverse in terms of age, cultural and social backgrounds than is the traditional academic-year student population, explained Thomas. Faculty and staff training will zero in on factors that limit student success, to increase awareness of the challenges that students face, and provide opportunities for students to succeed.

New initiatives in this area will involve faculty orientation, which will be conducted by psychology Professor Sheldon Solomon, an experimental social psychologist who has more than 25 years of experience in Skidmore's nationally renowned Opportunity Program, which helps academically and economically disadvantaged students succeed in college.

Another new component will be a values-affirmation exercise designed to boost the achievement of students of underserved populations. The exercise being considered is designed to reduce "stereotype threat" ? the development of anxiety/concern in a situation where people have the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group. The idea is to elimination negative self-perceptions based on social group identification.

Lessons from Skidmore's Intergroup Relations program will be used to help train residence hall staff in the areas of dialogue facilitation and conflict mediation, to further enhance a residence-hall climate that encourages positive interaction.

Engagement with SEO students in New York City will continue following the summer program. There will be two lectures by Skidmore faculty on weekends during the spring semester. The lectures will be open to all SEO high school seniors, not just those who attended the summer program at Skidmore during their junior year in high school.

The Teagle funds will provide about half the cost of tuition, room and board for the SEO Scholars attending Skidmore's Summer Pre-College Program. The grant is part of the Teagle Foundation's College-Community Connections Program, which is designed to forge collaborations between community-based organizations and strong college preparatory programs, and colleges and universities. Goals of the College-Community Connections Program are to encourage talented high school students to aim high in setting academic goals, and to encourage colleges and universities to commit to the partnership.