Summer program July 8-21 offers mutual learning experience for ninth-graders and Dartmouth undergrads

Posted 07/06/01

A group of ninth-graders from several Philadelphia high schools, Boston's Dorchester High School and Mascoma Valley Regional High School in New Hampshire will spend two weeks at Dartmouth July 8-21, in a new program designed to give them and a group of Dartmouth students a mutual learning experience.

The Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth (SEAD) Program will bring to campus 30 youngsters (10 from each locale) for both intensive instruction and recreation, with Dartmouth students serving as mentors.

The visiting students will have in common that they have demonstrated a capability and drive to succeed in school, and that they come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Otherwise they will represent a diversity of characteristics: a balance of boys and girls, of varying ethnicities, from both urban and rural schools. Tuition is free for all students.

The Dartmouth undergraduates will be mostly members of the Class of 2003, which will be having its "sophomore summer" at the College. (Dartmouth undergraduates spend the summer between their sophomore and junior years on campus.) They will live with the ninth-graders in Dartmouth residence halls, acting as residential advisors and educational mentors. The Dartmouth students are all volunteers recruited through another new program, "Summer of Service," offered by Dartmouth's William Jewett Tucker Foundation under the leadership of Dean Stuart C. Lord.

SEAD students will attend daily classes in English, mathematics and computer science, taught by six master teachers from public schools near Dartmouth. The professional teachers will be assisted by undergraduate interns from Dartmouth's Department of Education, who are being mentored by Andrew Garrod, Associate Professor of Education, who chairs the department.

The curriculum is designed to create a web-based final project. Students will learn core academic and Internet skills, and will participate in labs in study skills and writing, as well as individual tutoring.

To balance the challenging workload, SEAD has planned daily activities and games, as well as athletic events to keep students entertained and to provide breaks from the intense academic atmosphere. Students will tour work sites including Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the Valley News and Geographic Data Technology, Inc. They will also participate in discussions of post-secondary educational opportunities. In addition, a weekend trip will take students and their mentors to the White Mountains of New Hampshire where they will hike, canoe, participate in organic farming and spend the night at Dartmouth's Moosilauke Ravine Lodge.

A special feature of the program is that the high-schoolers will take home not only new educational experiences and lasting memories, but also Macintosh computers donated by the Dartmouth Class of 2003, which will help them to complete school work and to maintain long-term connection with their mentors in the future.

"We're aiming for a learning experience that goes both ways, in terms of both immediate and long-term enrichment for the high school students and the Dartmouth students," said Jay Davis, a 1990 Dartmouth graduate who teaches English in the Richmond School, a public school in Hanover, N.H., and is Director of the SEAD Program. "We're looking for the high schoolers to go back this fall fired up about their schoolwork, and for both sets of participants to have a respect-filled multicultural experience."

For their part, Dartmouth students will gain valuable experience working with high school students from diverse backgrounds. Undergraduates with an interest in education can utilize skills they gained through the Dartmouth Education Department's Teacher Education Program while serving as teaching assistants and tutors. Students can also volunteer to teach classes or hold seminars in a sport, field of study, or any other area in which they hold expertise, providing many with the opportunity to experience teaching for the first time.

The SEAD Program is a joint project of the Tucker Foundation, the Dartmouth Department of Education and the Dartmouth Class of 2003. It is being underwritten by grants from the Mary and William Barnet II '34 Family Fund and the Bildner Foundation. In addition, the Mascoma delegation is being partially sponsored by a donation from the Dartmouth Class of 1949.