 "Photo: Jessica Swartz")
Approximately 3,500 middle school students and their parents received a warm welcome at San Diego State on Saturday. It was all a part of SDSU's fifth annual Compact for Success campus visit for seventh graders in the Sweetwater Union School District.
The visit formally welcomed the seventh graders and their parents to the Compact for Success program, and introduced them to the campus and its services.
The students were greeted by University President Stephen Weber and Sweetwater Superintendent Edward Brand, as well as more than 44 different departments and organizations at SDSU, including the Pre-Dental Club, PSFA Student Council, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Student Union, Asian and Pacific Islander Social Work Association, and several greek communities. Students and parents were also given tours of the campus.
The visit is the first in a series of events for students in the Compact for Success program, which also includes a day-long visit to SDSU when they reach tenth grade, and an Intent to Enroll celebration for seniors who graduate in the program.
Erin Ferns, student assistant at the Compact for Success office, said the program is intended to get these students excited about going to college.
"It's a program designed to keep Sweetwater District students college-bound," Ferns said. "The goal is to give these students the opportunity to pursue a higher education and to guide them through high school to make sure they get into college."
According to Ferns, the program is a compact made between SDSU and the Sweetwater Union School District.
"SDSU agrees to take in Sweetwater students who are in the compact that have met the requirements, and allows these students to have first priority as freshmen," Ferns said. "Their applications will be looked at first, before the 40,000 other applications."
According to Jill Arnold, coordinator for Compact for Success, some of the requirements, called benchmarks, students must meet include completing college-prep high school courses with a minimum 3.0 grade point average, demonstrating no need for remediation once they get to SDSU and taking the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT). Students must also remain eligible to participate in the compact program from seventh through 12th grade.
Arnold said another advantage of the program is students with financial need will be given assistance.
"The program has secured private donations of half of a million dollars for each of the graduating classes, and the first four graduating classes are already covered," Arnold said.
Eleven-year-old Chanel Bagheri from Eastlake Middle School likes the financial assistance the program provides.
"The compact program is a good opportunity to get a free ride to SDSU," Bagheri said.
Many programs that help students get into college are only four years long and start in the ninth grade. But according to Arnold, it is vital the program reaches out to students starting in the at a young age.
"If you start college-bound consciousness in the seventh grade, we feel kids are more likely to attend college ultimately," Arnold said.
According to Ferns, it is also important these students become familiar with the university.
"Being guided by advisers from the compact on how to keep their grades up and how to get into college, as well as taking them to SDSU and showing them the campus, makes them familiarized with college as something they can do on their own," Ferns said.
Twelve-year-old Gina Kramer from Mar Vista Middle School loves the program.
"It's a really good program because it gives us a chance to go to college after we graduate from high school," Kramer said.
Arnold said the program is still young, and the first class to enter the compact program will graduate in 2006.
"It's a pilot program right now," Arnold said, "but it would not surprise me in the future if more districts started to pursue partnerships with us just like it."
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