Shanée Brown '12
Home Town: Bridgeport, CT
Major: English
Tucker Program: Habitat for Humanity, SEAD
History with Tucker: "I volunteered with SEAD and started volunteering for Habitat for Humanity my sophomore year. I became a Habitat Chair junior year, and now this year I have been the student director."
What Tucker Means to Me: "Tucker is a huge resource. Without the Tucker Foundation acting as an organizational umbrella for so many service programs on campus, students would be lacking in so many important volunteer opportunities."
– SEAD student graduate
SEAD I brings together students for the first time. The central goal of SEAD I is to build a sense of trust and cohesion as a group; participants are encouraged to grow as individuals, students, and members of their SEAD group in a college environment.
SEAD I students worked in two academic areas: Language Arts and Robotics. Two professional teachers and a number of Dartmouth students or recent graduates lead these classes. Students have an hour study hall most evenings with support from the student teachers and volunteer tutors.
The goal of the Language Arts program is to lay the foundations for the group to work together for three summers. Diverse students from the five areas need to become a group, able to trust each other enough to communicate about readings and their writing as well as about themselves. The overarching theme of the Language Arts program is "Identity": an exploration of themselves as individuals and more importantly as members of various groups including family, home communities, SEAD, and future communities. They work together to break down stereotypes and barriers between the groups and between members of their own groups. Students read short narratives and poems as the basis of discussions and extensive writing, culminating in graduation presentations of poetry and a final collection of their writing in a SEAD Literary Journal .
SEAD partners with the Thayer School of Engineering to create a Robotics curriculum for SEAD I. Students work in teams of three with computer-programmable LEGO robots to achieve various "missions" presented to them by the lead teachers. Exhaustive trial and error is combined with carefully sequenced workshops and scaffolding instruction so that students learn the fundamental components of mechanical design and computer programming. Final presentation of these missions is during the graduation ceremony, with audience groups watching each SEAD group demonstrate their robots' responses to the challenges presented.
SEAD I also incorporates career awareness into its program. Students discuss a variety of post-secondary opportunities, meeting with Dartmouth faculty and visiting local businesses. Students learn additional skills as they travel into New Hampshire's White Mountains for a weekend. Students choose trips organized in consultation with the Dartmouth Outing Club and go canoeing, rock climbing, hiking or work on an organic farm.
All SEAD I students are given individual Mentors and Academic Coaches, Dartmouth sophomores, who work with them while they are on campus, individually tutoring them in their classes, joining them on their outing trips and helping the students explore what it means to go to college. The mentors also keep contact with the SEAD students as they progress through their school year and through the three years of the SEAD program.
SEAD II is for students who have successfully completed the first year of the program. The central goal of SEAD II is encouraging students to think about their influence on the environment, as well as the effect the environment has on them. Students find heroes who will inspire them to believe that they can create change for themselves – change that will positively affect their communities. Students also fundraise and participate in the Prouty Walk for Cancer Research.
SEAD II continues to develop students' academic skills in the complementary areas of research, writing, and presentation skills. Students devise their own research project and present the results at graduation. The highlight of the Environmental Science class is an overnight visit to the Isles of Shoals Marine Laboratory where students engage in tide pool collections, microscopic observation and an optional shark dissection.
Students develop their reading, writing and analytic skills while exploring themes of environment. Students are encouraged to think about the effect of environment on the various characters about whom they read. Students complete daily journals and homework assignments as well as a final research paper.
Each SEAD student is paired with two Dartmouth sophomores again this summer.
Students return to campus for the third and final SEAD experience after finishing their junior year in high school. The central goal of SEAD III is to prepare students to be successful as they undertake the college application process and prepare to navigate the transition from high school to a post-secondary institution. Dartmouth student involvement unique to SEAD III is the role of the "college partner," a personal guide through the college application process for each SEAD student. In July of 2003, SEAD graduated its first class of 24 high school students from Dorchester, MA, Philadelphia, PA, and Canaan, NH: all had completed three consecutive summers of leadership training, community service, and preparation for college.
All students go through the challenging process of filling out the Common Application, including writing their personal essay. This essay is the culmination of their three-year experience at SEAD, as they have learned to value themselves as individuals, as members of their communities, and as potential members of society as adults. Students learn to meet challenging deadlines and develop their presentation as well as writing skills. Graduation includes making a presentation of a topic chosen only one day before.
Students work on SAT preparation, doing work on vocabulary and test taking strategies as well as taking practice exams. They also have workshops on financial aid in order to appreciate how much college costs and how much help they can get. Students have workshops and classes that allow them to practice college interviews and public speaking. Finally, they are given information about how to select and research the right schools for them, using a library database.
SEAD III students are once again be individually paired with a Dartmouth sophomore who acts as a college coach. The Dartmouth students provide academic encouragement and additional mentoring. The students return to Mt. Moosilauke in the White Mountains for a culminating experience of square dancing, swimming and mountain climbing. Additional non-academic activities include museum trips, salsa dancing, ultimate frisbee and more. The final mentoring role is helping students prepare for their public speech at graduation.
– SEAD student graduate
