While many students dread the thought of spending part of their summers in a classroom, there are some who actively choose to be there. As many adolescents flood the streets, parks, shopping malls, and movie theaters in search of either employment, leisure, or perhaps even some summer mischief, forty-eight high school students on the Dartmouth campus will be learning engineering skills, reading, writing, preparing college essays and applications, studying for the SAT, and presenting public speeches, while also learning how to do “The Salty Dog Rag,” climbing Mt. Moosilauke, exploring the inner workings of a radio station, and on and on.. This is not your average summer program.
Indeed, the activities above are only part of what will be taking place this summer during the Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth (SEAD) Program. Located on the Dartmouth campus, SEAD brings students from under-resourced urban and rural high schools from various partner schools throughout the country for the fourth consecutive summer. The program strives to provide the academic, social, cultural, and self-exploratory opportunities that are too often not readily available in the students’ home schools. SEAD brings each of its classes back for three consecutive summers, for two weeks at a time. Its mission is to expand what they believe is possible for their futures, with the ultimate goal of making the thought of attending college a reality.
Begun with the vision of Hanover resident Carol Fuchs (a long-time advocate for students from under-resourced backgrounds), SEAD exists as a combined project of the Tucker Foundation and Dartmouth Education Department. In summer, 2004, SEAD will be graduating its second group of students from the three-year long program -- a program that one graduate described in the following words: “It has been one of the best experiences in my life. Not only did it introduce me to new people from different places, it introduced me to the school that I would like to attend for college. SEAD has taught me about many things in the world, most important who I am. I wouldn't change it for the world. If it were up to me, I would never leave. In short, I love it.”
SEAD is also introducing thirty-two new students to Hanover this summer for the SEAD I program. Having previously worked exclusively with Dorchester High School in Boston, Mascoma High School, in Enfield, New Hampshire, and the Philadelphia Futures program in Philadelphia, the program expands this year to three new locations. SEAD welcomes rising sophomores from Albany High School in New York, Spartanburg High School in South Carolina, and the Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Oklahoma, in addition to its students from Dorchester and Mascoma.
If SEAD exists to expand the possibilities of rural and urban high school students, the core of this existence is the volunteerism of the sophomore class. With meals donated from 29 organizations in 2004, and over 250 sophomores involved in some capacity, SEAD relies on the magic that comes from authentic interactions among people from vastly different backgrounds and with widely-ranging experiences and interests.
Any questions about the program can directed to the SEAD office at (603)646-6547 or via email at SEAD@Dartmouth.edu.
-Jason Medeiros
SEAD Student Director
