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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 27, 1997
Contact: Mary Caffrey 609/258-5748
Princeton to Host 40 South Bronx Students at Summer Institute
Princeton, N.J. -- Forty fourth-grade students from the South Bronx will spend four weeks on the Princeton campus starting July 6 in an intensive academic enrichment program that is part of an ongoing effort to strengthen reading and math skills and encourage urban children to aspire to attend college.
The Summer Institute at Princeton is a pilot project to be conducted with The Community of Scholars, which was founded last year by two Princeton alumni, Jeremy Roller and Marc Sternberg. Roller and Sternberg are participants in Teach For America, the national teacher corps that asks college graduates to spend two years teaching in urban and rural areas that lack educational resources.
The Community of Scholars aims to boost academic performance and increase motivation for students from Community Schools 6 and 66 in the South Bronx, where Sternberg and Roller teach. Historically, students in these schools have registered some of worst academic performances in New York City. The initiative targets students who are reaching the age when they may give up on school; during the academic year, they take part in after-school sessions and field trips that are designed to raise expectations, promote discipline and keep parents involved. The Summer Institute, which falls midway in the program's 22-month cycle, will give these fourth-graders the experience of being on a college campus and a chance to explore new environments during weekend excursions.
"Research today shows that achievement is related to the expectations for the success or failure of these students," said Sternberg. "High expectations are essential for success -- not only from the teacher, but from the parents and the student. It's a partnership between all of us to ensure that the child succeeds. That's why our students are scholars -- a term that denotes a greater dedication to learning," he said.
The institute is the first program of its kind to be held at Princeton University. Associate Dean of Religious Life Sue Anne Steffey Morrow will direct the four-week program, with most costs covered by a $50,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. In addition to Sternberg and Roller, several of the summer instructors are Princeton alumni.
Scholars will spend the morning in the classroom, with instructors teaching from a specially designed curriculum that will include math, reading, writing, and science. Other sessions will offer lessons in chess, arts and crafts and theater, with time set aside for sports, reading and reflection. Off-campus events will focus on educational topics such as marine biology and the arts. Students will keep journals to chronicle their stay on campus.
Morrow, who knew both Sternberg and Roller as undergraduates, has high hopes for the summer program. "We admire the spirit behind the Community of Scholars program, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to help shape this pilot summer institute. We have every hope and expectation that the experience will be a very positive one for the students who participate, as well as for the dedicated teachers who serve as staff."