October 25, 2001
New program to serve needs of very capable students statewide
Very capable, academically talented students statewide will be eligible for admission to the University after their sophomore year in high school thanks to a program being created through the Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars.
The new program, called the UW Academy for Young Scholars, has received two years of start-up funds from the Provost’s office. The first class will be admitted in the fall.
Bob Vaughn, director of the highly capable student programs for the Seattle Public School District since 1992, will become the first associate director of the Robinson Center for the UW Academy later this month.
According to Robinson Center Director Kate Noble, students admitted to the young scholars program will go directly into the Honors Program as University freshmen. This is in contrast to Early Entrance Program students, who enter the University after their seventh- or eighth-grade year and spend a year in a transition school before taking regular University classes.
“We’ve recognized the need for this new program for several years,” Noble said. “The Early Entrance Program- also administered by the Robinson Center – is available only to students who are within commuting distance of the University, and who are ready to enter college without attending high school.”
Noble says there are a number of students who are just as capable, but who either live too far away to be early-entrance students or prefer to attend some high school before entering the University.
Although young scholars will immediately enter regular University courses their first year, the Robinson Center is planning a bridge program to help them settle in. Nancy Sisko, associate director of the Robinson Center, is heading up that effort.
“With our current early-entrance students, we work on skills they might not have despite being very bright,” Sisko said. “These include organizational skills, writing skills, analytical thinking, reading, the ability to conduct themselves like young scholars in a university setting, the ability to ask questions, to ask for help. We plan a similar skills program for the young scholars, but it will be linked to an Early Fall Start lecture course, so it will only be a few weeks at the beginning of their time here.”
There will be other supports for these young scholars as well, including weekly meetings with Robinson Center staff, and a mentoring program. And young scholars who want to live on campus will be placed together in residence halls.
The new program, like the Early Entrance Program, will be self-supporting after the initial two-year funding runs out. Noble said she is working with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to get the state’s basic allocation for each public school student applied to the young scholars program. Young scholars also pay tuition.
“We’ll be looking for funding to create scholarships for some of these students,” Noble said. “These are top students and they’re heavily recruited. This is part of our effort to reach out to the brightest students in Washington state and have them realize that the UW is not only a viable option but a fantastic option.”
Noble said the Robinson Center is also working with outreach programs on campus to encourage as many students as possible from underrepresented groups to come into the program.
The admissions process for the program has not yet been set up, but will be modeled on the Early Entrance Program, which includes a screening test, a review of grades, essays and intensive interviews with the students and their parents and teachers. Noble says the young scholars’ admission standards will probably be a little less stringent but still more stringent than those for the regular honors program.
The Early Entrance Program currently admits about 16 students a year and loses, on average, two of these. The young scholars program will probably admit 30 students in the fall, and hopes ultimately to admit 50 students a year.
“We recognize that not every student who comes into our programs is going to stay, but we try to encourage them to think of it as an exciting educational risk,” Sisko said. “If it’s not right for them they can go back to high school, and we will make as smooth a transition for them as possible. We try very hard to help them not see this as a failure.”
The current Transition School and the planned Young Scholar Academy bridge program, however, are designed to give the students every chance at success.
“We have 20 years of experience in working with younger students and seeing what they need to be successful university students – that is, outstanding young scholars, not just mediocre students,” Sisko said. “We tell the students and parents there’s really no reason to enter the University early if they are not going to be excellent students.”
